The Diplomat
by Victoria Wolf
Summary: The SG Atlantis team has found a Wraith that may save the Atlantis people and Ronan may have found the answer to saving him as well. RonanOC Slash other pairings as well
1. The Wraith

(Authors Note: I went and tweaked grammar and sentence structure, nothing big.)

* * *

John Sheppard sighed while the screen in front of him continued to flicker slightly. "What are we going to do?"

"I have no idea… why'd you bring it here?" Weir asked.

"I figured it was a perfect chance to learn things about them that we'd never had a chance to." John withheld another sigh as the Wraith on the screen leaned on the back wall in the corner of his cell.

The Wraith stared at the camera and seemed to be looking right at him.

This Wraith was attired differently than any he had seen before. It had on the standard black leather-like material for its pants, but it was wearing an almost T-shirt thing. The T-shirt was black and appeared at first glance like any T-shirt found on earth, but when they had been moving the Wraith's body to the holding cell the material felt more like silk but was stronger and didn't seem to ruin as easily. It also had a strange tattoo that marked its upper bicep; a dragon curled around itself and then seemed to be clawing at a humanoid figure.

They had found the Wraith right outside the Stargate on a new planet they were about to explore. It was lying so close that it had almost been vaporized by the gate's activation. They pulled over and picked it up, gathering it up and taking it back for Dr. Beckett to look over. It had apparently been stunned with a type of stun gun, but was fine and they moved it to the cell and waited for it to awaken.

It awoke about 20 minutes ago. Jolting awake the Wraith had sat bolt right and looked around. Finding itself trapped in the medium sized cell it had paced all the way around once. Looking at the wall, ceiling, and floor. After this quick inspection apparently revealed no weakness, it had leaned back on the wall and not moved, looking all around and finding the camera almost instantly.

"And what exactly do you hope to accomplish? No one currently on base can speak Wraith and even if there were I seriously doubt that it will tell us anything important, true, or useful."

"What about what we can learn from it while it still lives? About certain drugs, behaviors, etc and after if dies I can see what starvation does to the Wraith antinomy. Steve was close but the virus tampered with everything." Dr. Beckett spoke from his stand near the back. "Let's not forget that some seem to have mastered our language, too."

"How about I see if I can get it to talk first?" John, ever optimistic and sarcastic spoke.

"No." Ronan Dex spoke, his voice pulsing through the room. "I think we should kill it like we should have done back on the planet."

"I agree with Ronan, we should kill it and now." Rodney spoke up. "What if it gets loose? It's not like the cell is secure, the previous cell being broken in the last massive attack."

"There is security on it 24-7, right outside the door, and security cameras as you can see. It isn't going to get loose." Weir stated in a flat voice. "John, I think that you should try to speak to it, try to form some kind of connection, you will be one of the few people to speak to it. You have to feed it, make sure it is clean etc."

"Oh a pet of my very own. Just what I always wanted." John groused leaving the room and heading out towards the door.

The security officers were carefully placed so that no one could neutralize them without at least one of the others being able to fire or send an alert up. John nodded to them and they braced themselves as the door hissed open.

John was struck again by how the Wraith standing across from him was different. Besides the tattoo and the clothing this one's teeth seemed slightly smaller and different, his mouth was entirely closed without any show of the rows and rows of sharp teeth, his eyes were also a bluish-green color and his skin a darker shade of green then most.

John watched as the Wraith seemed to be reevaluating the situation. Its surprise when he arrived made him pause until he realized that the Wraith probably thought either there would be more guards coming or that he was on another Wraith ship and was surprised to find itself wrong.

"Hello." John smirked at the recovering Wraith. "How are you feeling?"

The Wraith watched him for a full minute as John settled himself down on a chair out of reach of the bars and got comfortable. "My name is Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and I will be interrogating you this evening."

The Wraith seemed to smirk at him but it didn't move nor respond.

"So what is your name?"

Nothing.

"Okay, Larry." John smiled, once again naming a prisoner with the first thing that came to mind.

No response besides a slight hiss that had to be annoyance.

"Okay Larry, what were you doing on planet 'Big Desert'?" John smiled at the name and looked down at the report. Some people had found that all the numbers were blending together and began to name them. "Big desert? Who named it that?" He laughed out loud as the name came up. "Ronan?" He continued to smile and chuckle slightly to himself before he looked up. He jumped back and almost fell backwards over the chair.

The Wraith had moved from his semi-reclined position against the wall and was crouched right next to the bars not 2 feet away, just watching.

The various papers on work John had yet to do, as well as reports his team had done on this and a few other missions scattered everywhere. Including right next to the Wraith and in its cage. The Wraith reached forward and gathered all the papers nearest him and the sarcastic Colonel could do nothing besides sputter.

It then retreated to its back wall and began to shift through all the papers. "Hey! That's not yours! Give it back!"

The Wraith smirked and then ignored him. Turning back to the papers he shuffled them and arranged them in some kind of order. Then to all appearances he began to read it.

Ronan suddenly strode into the room as John began to gather up the papers left. "Give them back you parasite." He addressed the Wraith, pointing the gun at him and threatening him with it.

The Wraith merely looked up from the papers at him, then flipped the page and continued reading.

"Ronan. Stop." Teyla enter the room at just that moment as Ronan looked very much like he was going to shoot the Wraith.

"Yeah it's no good to us dead." Rodney entered last looking distinctly uncomfortable. "You sure it's safe to be here? It can't get out?"

The Wraith didn't even look up. "No it can't. I don't even think it can understand us." John added.

"Never underestimate the sneakiness of a parasite like a Wraith. They're rats that are trying to escape extermination." Ronan jibed hoping to get a rise out of the prisoner who was ignoring them so totally it didn't even look up.

So it surprised everyone when the Wraith snorted and retorted. "And your cattle that's too stupid to realize it's not at the top of the food chain."

"It can talk!" John spoke forestalling any retort that Ronan may have made.

"I'm not stupid." The Wraith responded before going back to the reports. "Just because you're not able to learn our language doesn't mean that we haven't learned yours. Which if you've met some of us I'm sure you know."

"Course we do. But not all of you can speak it right? Why is that?" John spoke trying to keep it going. It answered him but continued to read the papers.

"Because not everyone thinks it's worth learning what humans are saying. Nor do they see the strategic advantage in knowing what the Atlantians are planning." Now it looked up. Its eyes flashing at him. "We are on Atlantis, correct?"

John replied the affirmative just as Ronan and Rodney said no.

"What are you thinking Colonel?!" Rodney snapped. "Have you lost it?"

"It already knows where it is, I don't see why we shouldn't answer such a small question. Especially if we want it to answer any of ours." John replied in a calm tone before looking at the Wraith who was watching in apparent interest.

The Wraith suddenly straightened and headed towards the congregation of humans that tensed visibly, Ronan tightening his grip on the gun, Rodney moving backwards, and Teyla spread her legs into a fighters' stance. John tensed and stared at the approaching Wraith as it stopped at the bars.

"Besides, I'm going to die anyway so what's it matter whether I know where I am or not?" It eyed the bars disdainfully before calmly passing the papers over to the Colonel. "The planet's inhabitants use to call it 'Halkim'. I think it meant Blessed in their native tongue." The Wraith said, commenting on the name they had given the planet.

"Halkim? And what happened to the people there?" Teyla asked her voice laced with the criticism that her face did not show.

The Wraith just looked at her; it stood there with a sardonic look on its face until even the slowest among them knew what happened.

"Blessed huh? Some name." Rodney said reaching the conclusion they were all dead.

Shrugging it replied. "It wasn't always a desert; it was a rich paradise once. But the Cerberus clan owned it, and they're known to be a little greedy and they never care for their," it looked at Ronan and smirked. "Herds the way they should."

Ronan had had enough. He raised his gun, but in his anger he forgot to keep a safe distance away and the Wraith's arm became a green blur as it caught the gun, twisted Ronan's hand so he reflexively let go in pain, and had it pointed at Teyla who had moved up closer as soon as it had made the comment about the herds, foreseeing Ronan's reaction.

Everyone in the room tensed and John pulled out his gun as men poured in and also aimed their guns at the Wraith.

Not losing composure the Wraith kept the gun steady and eyed it.

"Put the gun down or we will open fire and you will be exterminated." The head of the guards growled out.

The Wraith continued its inspection before lowering its arm and examining it more closely. It let out a hiss and calmly took the gun apart in seconds in front of everyone's startled eyes. Finishing and making the gun completely useless, the Wraith calmly handed the pieces back to the furious Ronan.

Ronan looked as though he was ready to explode. "You leech! You've destroyed my gun!" He shouted.

"You put it in my face first." It retorted with a slight hiss betraying its annoyance at the gun being in its face. "And maybe now you will remember that I maybe caged, but I'm not out of commission and it's dangerous to assume because I was incapacitated when you found me that I'm easily immobilized."

"He's got a point, Ronan." John replied, holstering his gun and motioning for the other soldiers to do so as well.

"Do you want us to stay, Colonel Sheppard?" The same officer as before asked saluting.

"No. I don't think we'll have any problems now. Ronan, Teyla, Rodney, leave." John ended with a glare at his teammates.

"I was leaving!" McKay said, his voice rising in hysteria. As he left you could hear him saying to Teyla. "I thought you guys said it couldn't get out!"

Sheppard waited until they left and then sat back in his chair. Not at all surprised to find that the Wraith had moved back into its reclined position. "So how about that name… or would you prefer Larry?"

The Wraith watched him again, just as John was about to set it up as a lost cause, it spoke. "Why do you care? You've all already depersonalized me. You all call me 'It' instead of 'He'."

"Because, I'm trying to personalize you." John replied reasonably. "Besides, I get confused with the whole gender thing with you guys."

The Wraith raised i… HIS eyebrows at the retort. "Jayden." He chose to ignore the second part of what he said.

"Jayden? Hmmm… interesting." John replied marking down his name.

"My turn. What is Lieutenant Colonel? I'm unfamiliar with that word." Jayden asked.

"Lieutenant Colonel is a military rank. That means I'm a commissioned officer of the fifth rank out of ten. Ten being the highest." Colonel John Sheppard answered fluently. Willing to keep the ball rolling since he wasn't giving anything up that may endanger his people. "What where you doing on planet… Halkim?"

"I was doing recon, you?"

"Recon." John replied the same. "What were you looking for?"

"Classified. You?"

"Classified as well. We aren't getting anywhere are we?" John winced as he realized that he had just wasted a question.

"Not really. How did you survive when the Minotaurs attacked? I'd heard Atlantis was destroyed."

"Classified. Who are the Minotaurs? And why is that name familiar?"

"A clan of Wraiths, allies of the Cerberus clan. I do not know enough about your culture to answer your second question. Maybe they ruled your planet once." Jayden answered, he was about to ask his next question when John interrupted him.

"We weren't and aren't ruled by any Wraiths." He snarled. "Our job is to destroy you and we do a damned good job of it."

Jayden's face-hardened and he didn't speak. Suddenly realizing he had let his temper get ahead of him John tried to think of something to take it back without taking it back per say. For once it eluded him and he walked out of the room annoyed with himself.

He met up with Weir in the room that was being confiscated for the security base for the cells and reported all he had learned to her and his team. Looking at Teyla he noticed someone was missing. "Where is Ronan?"

"He went to the training room to… work out some anger." Teyla answered.

"Oh. I'll see ya'll later." John headed toward the training room once he left the others to discuss what they were going to do with 'Jayden'.

"Ronan?" Sheppard called as he entered the room. Ronan didn't hear him over the sound of flesh pounding the punching bag. "Ronan!" He called louder.

Ronan punched one last time then caught the bag and looked at John. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." He answered and was about to continue his beating when John grabbed his hand and glared at him.

"What have I told you about wearing gloves when using the punching bag?"

"That it keeps my blood off of it so that others don't turn rabid either."

"Right, so where are your gloves?"

"Over there, Mother." Ronan laughed. "But they don't give the satisfying sound."

"So? You need to protect the others; one Ronan is enough, thank you!"

Grumbling Ronan sighed, but didn't pick up the gloves; he punched the bag once more then sat down in a collapse of bones. "I was stupid. I let my anger cloud my judgment."

"If it makes you feel any better I did too. He was talking and I let something he said piss me off. My mouth wandered off and forgot my brain and now he's not talking anymore."

"So I can kill him now?" Ronan asked his voice hopeful.

"Not my call Ronan, that's Weir's."

"We know she isn't going to order the execution of that Wraith. She's too 'humane'." He slurred the word humane in a way that told John he didn't like that word at all.

"You could be a little nicer. Elizabeth tries to do the best she can to appease all parties; technically you are the only one who doesn't see and benefit in keeping the Wraith alive."

"But I'm very vocal about it, so I count for more than one." Ronan replied but his heart wasn't in it. "Look Sheppard. I know what they're capable of. They're not worth keeping around. All it will think of is escaping and killing all of us; the second it escapes, and trust me it will escape or die before it gives you any important information, it will come after you and pray that it kills you." Looking away Ronan left.

John watched him go and restrained himself to keep from following him and trying to help him. The last time that he had Ronan had about taken his head off. One thing people seem to forget was Ronan was violent and hurt animal; he may protect you and help you now, but that was his choice and he can and will take your arm off. John wished he could fix the other man's pain but he wouldn't see it as a friendship thing, he would see it as pity. And he would despise him for it.

* * *

Ronan leaned a little ways away, his back to the wall and just let his memories wash over him. The running, the pain, everything. He didn't know how to make them go away, they were festering, and he could feel it, down in the pit of his stomach. He hadn't told anyone but he had been throwing up blood lately. Ronan knew that he had stomach holes or ulcers as the Atlantians called it.

Ronan had a feeling that the stress from his nightmares and anger was causing it; seven years of nothing but running, fearing for others' lives, had left their mark and not just the scars on his back.

He made up his mind then, he was going to find out what they wanted from the Wraith and then he was going to kill it. The thought of the nightmares he would experience now that a Wraith was less than 500 meters away from where he was sleeping was enough to make him want the coffee stuff the Atlantian's here drank, even though it made him so sick that he knew he would be sicking up all night. _Better then sleeping._

Heading towards the cell monitoring room he entered and looked at Weir who was still talking to Beckett. _Arguing more like it_. They were in a violent argument about what they should do about giving the Wraith a physical.

Doctor Beckett wanted to just put guards up and examine him while he was awake, said they didn't know what a fully active and awake Wraith's brain patterns looked like. He was telling Weir the strategically the possible advantage of knowing this was astronomical and McKay was agreeing intellectually but saying it was too dangerous.

"Did you see how he moved earlier? He could grab you and hold you hostage and then you'd be dead, he'd be dead, and we'd have lost the best Doctor on board. It's too dangerous, we need to subdue him, stun him perhaps. Then do whatever tests are required." Elizabeth stated calmly and rationally.

"You don't understand the brain patters are different when someone is stunned then when they are awake. We need to compare his patterns with the ones from Teyla; maybe we could measure exactly how close they have to be in order for their telepathy to work. What other talents they may have etc." Beckett was getting emotional, like all the scientists he was passionate about his work, and the idea that someone, anyone, would purposely impede the discovery of something was so abhorrent to his very nature that he was looking very close to storming out like a teenager.

"I'll cover him." Ronan grumbled out. "The leech won't pull another stunt like before on me, and I've put my gun back together." He clamped down his anger at his gun being touched and buried it deep, leaving the same calm facade he always had.

"See, it's very possible." Beckett pleaded.

Weir did not look convinced. "I'm sorry Dr. Beckett; I can't endanger your life or the safety of this outpost by allowing you to do this."

Beckett's face went entirely closed. "I'm sorry Weir but I'm pulling rank on you. I'm in charge of any medical procedures that I deem necessary. I need to examine the Wraith Jayden and I wish that I had your support and approval but I do not require it." With that he marched out, looking really pissed at having to pull rank.

John had walked up behind Ronan while this was going on and had to jump out of the way as Beckett left. "Can he do that?"

"Yes." Weir said her shock plain. Even though Dr. Beckett had rank in this particular case, he had never used it.

"Where is he going?"

"To get his equipment I think." Rodney answered watching where the Scottish man had just stormed off.

"Do you want us to guard him Weir?" John asked the woman.

"Yes, we don't want to have to explain to the investigators that his death wasn't only because he went in a cell with a Wraith awake and active, but that he didn't have anyone watching his back because I'm annoyed with him."

"Gotcha." Sheppard gather his team to him then whispered. "Rodney I need you to go get some sleep so that you're fresh for all the information that is sure to come to you." McKay nodded and looked a little smug at getting to go to bed now. "Teyla I need you to be there and try and read Jayden to give us warning if he decides to get ornery. Ronan, you and I are going to cover Dr. Beckett's back. Okay guys, let's get set up; we're not going to get anyone else because we don't need any more variables."

Ronan nodded and checked his gun out of habit, and then they moved towards the Wraith's cell. Opening the door they moved to either side of the door and prepared while aware of the Wraith's blue-green eyes on them.

* * *

Jayden watched as the human Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and the human Ronan approached his cage and pulled out their guns. _So they've finally gotten around to it; at least it's better than starving._

Lifting his chin he pushed himself off the wall and stood calmly in the middle of his cage. He was faintly Surprised when another man entered with the human he assumed was called Rodney. The female from before also entered then. All the humans had something in their hands and Jayden had a bad Feeling about all of this. It didn't help any when Rodney dropped his stuff, looked at him and left quickly.

"Good evening, Jayden. My name is Dr. Beckett and I will be giving you something similar to a physical. Which means that I will be checking all your functions and such to try and determine how your health is."

Jayden eyed this man and had an instant Like for him. He had a strange accent on him and something about him reminded the Wraith of his home planet. "I believe I understand. What does each of these machines do?"

Beckett went about and pointed to each of the instruments and told him the uses of it and what it would do, as well as what it told him about a person's physical wellness. "How will this help you know how I am doing if you have never done this on a Wraith before? Have you ever done one on a Wraith before? If so, I should warn you that between the clans there are… differences." Although the humans didn't know it, Jayden had purposely shared that information with them.

"No we have never done this on a Wraith before and how is each clan different? Different like we are in race or different like species of cats and dogs?" Beckett suddenly flushed realizing that the Wraith before him may take exception to being likened to a cat or dog but the Wraith didn't show any signs of being offended just slightly confused.

"I'm sorry; I do not understand some of the phrases you used. Perhaps once you give me an example I can better answer your question." The Wraith confessed his lack of knowledge graciously. "Now to the matter at hand. Why should I submit to such a testing? The information I would give you could be used against my clan, why should I endanger their lives?"

"If you don't cooperate then we'll just learn what we can from your dead body." Ronan replied acidly with more than a hint of threat.

The Wraith turned to address him. "Yes, but then some information will be lost, I cannot help the information that you can gain with my dead body. I must focus on what I can barter with."

"What do you want?" John asked before Ronan could reply.

"A bath, I will need at least one a day, I reek. That is what I ask for in exchange for this day of tests." Jayden decided to start out small and he decided that this was definitely the one thing he could not do without at the moment.

"I don't think it's from lack of showering." Ronan mumbled but everyone chose to ignore him.

Beckett considered for a split second before speaking before Sheppard could. "Deal."

"I would like my payment up front please. It's not that I don't trust you, that doesn't come into play here, it's that I really would like a bath." Jayden certainly didn't Trust the humans he seemed to be surrounded by, but it honestly didn't matter at the moment. He needed a bath…. Now.

* * *

"Will a shower do?" John asked.

"What is a shower?"

"It's when water comes out of a faucet and 'showers' down, it's more efficient then a bath."

"If it will get me clean it does not matter."

"Now, how are we going to get you to the showers?"

"I've got an idea." Dr. Beckett spoke up. "I couldn't bring most of the supplies I needed in this trip and was planning on another trip, and doing without in some cases. He could shower using the ones in the med center and we can do all the necessary things there."

"But how to get him there without Weir blowing up and chewing our heads off." The Colonel voiced the major question at the moment.

"I didn't know humans could do that. I doubt it will help if I promise not to try anything unless you try it first…" Jayden spoke.

"Not really. I suppose if we set an armed escort, and have people guarding all the sideways off of the path we're going to take you it would be okay…" John winced at the idea of taking a Wraith in the hallways where escape was possible but turned on his com-link and made the orders while preparing to unlock the Wraith.

"Turn around and put your hands behind your back please."

The Wraith looked distinctly uncomfortable but did as he was told, tensing and looking over his shoulder as John unlocked the cell door. When John slipped the handcuffs on he could see the muscles in the Wraith's body perfectly, its shirt acting like a second skin. He felt a bit of dread as he came to the conclusion that the handcuffs were mostly going to be for show.

The Wraith remained tense as John turned him around and they began the walk towards the showers.

* * *

Jayden looked around and mentally made a map of the areas he was viewing, he would now be able to travel through this particular hallway blinded without difficulty. He ignored the Feeling of another presence, having already discerned it was the female Teyla. Adding in the faces and adding up all the men he saw he could determine a fairly good idea how many men were on Atlantis and he felt his stomach drop at the idea that even if he did manage to escape his cell that he wouldn't be able to escape to the outside world anyways. Still filing all the information he'd been gathering away he decided that he would take and work over the problem in his head when he had more time. _It's not like I'll have anything else to do._

He relaxed slightly when indeed they came upon a few rooms that had curtains and to all appearances was this 'shower' place John Sheppard described. Once there John faced the problem of having to undo the handcuffs and show Jayden how everything worked, then having to leave the unrestrained Wraith to his own devises while a shower curtain hid him from view.

John had seen how the Wraith had relaxed once they reached the showers and suspected that he hadn't been certain that they would keep their word. "We kept our word. Now you keep yours and don't cause any trouble." He reminded the other male.

"I remember the deal and since you abided by your end I will do so on mine. I don't suppose that soap and clean clothes are part of the deal?" Jayden asked hopefully.

"I see no problem with that." John said, already having considered that. "Here's your soap and is your shirt dry-clean or washable? Do Wraith even have dry-cleaning?"

"Thank you, I don't understand, and how can something be cleaned and remain dry?" Jayden took the soap and disappeared behind the curtain, taking off his clothes and following John's description of how to turn on the water and relishing the hot spray that would have scalded the humans.

"Never mind." John took the clothes that were handed over the partition and held them an arms distance away. "Your right they reek! We should burn them."

"No!" Jayden snapped looking over the curtain to the humans, who still had their guns trained on him.

"Why shouldn't we? They'll never be clean again."

* * *

"They clean well. They'll be fine." Jayden briefly contemplated saying please but he figured that they wouldn't expect it from him and it would really freak them out, plus if they realized how important his clothes were to him they might use it as leverage.

Turning back to the wonderful shower he was experiencing he used the soap first on his body then on his hair. Careful to get everything and trying to decide if he still stunk. Wondering idly whether he'd actually get a shower or not after the tests were completed.

Turning of the water he decided to mention this new thing to Mother once he got back to his clan. _If I get back. Ever optimistic aren't you, idiot._ He hissed to himself.

A towel and a set of clothing got passed over the curtain and he dried off and dressed in what were definitely not his clothes. He exited with a sneer on his face.

"What?" John asked upon seeing his sneer while Ronan and Teyla just kept their guns trained on him.

"I'd like to know why I'm wearing a 3rd rank Artemis clan outfit?" Jayden tried to keep his disgust from his voice.

"Artemis clan? Well we don't have anything else that will fit you and your clothes aren't quiet done."

"I'd like my clothes back as soon as possible then. And I will over look the offence since you don't seem to realize the insult." Jayden paused outside the shower and tried to forget he was wearing the enemy's colors and suppress his hissing. "Thank you."

Following where they lead he entered a large white room where beds, equipment, and very nervous people awaited his arrival.

* * *

"If you'll just hop up on this table we'll get started." Beckett said turning around and getting his stethoscope ready. He jerked back to face the Wraith when he heard gasps and guns cocking and fell backwards in surprise. Jayden had apparently misunderstood the phrase 'hop up' and had literally hopped up on the table and stood standing on it eyeing the guns that were angled towards him.

"I guess I should have been more specific, my fault. Could you sit on the table for me?" Beckett said covering his embarrassment and deciding to go with it when Jayden merely folded his legs and ended up sitting Indian style on the examining table. "Okay, now I'd like you to breath in… deep… okay breath out… again… Hmmmm." Beckett repeated the procedure to both the front and the back of the Wraith's chest after getting him to remove his newly acquired shirt and jacket, leaving the leather pants on. Strangely he seemed glad to remove the clothing.

Beckett looked over to his clipboard and wrote down that the 'lungs' seem to be clean and he could hear no wheezing. "Alrightie before we go on with the normal procedure let's get you X-rayed."

Jayden eyed the machine that would be giving him an 'X-ray' and decided that it didn't look too dangerous. "What does this do?"

"It takes a picture of your insides."

"That sounds painful." Jayden said doubtfully but 'hopped up' on the table and laid down at the gesture from John Sheppard.

"No, no, no. It shouldn't hurt at all. Now take a breath and hold it in, close your eyes, and relax. This will only take a moment."

Jayden tried to keep him muscles relaxed but suspected he failed once the machine started to move and make strange sounds causing his muscles to twitch wildly. He got off the table and moved away from the X-ray machine, as soon as the test was over, pacing slightly while ignoring the guns that never wavered from him and the nervous humans behind them. "I do not think I liked that." He almost cursed as he had to repeat himself; he doubted that they could understand through his hissing.

"That's okay; you don't have to do it again. This is interesting." Beckett spoke absently and eyed the results.

"What is?" He moved forward but stopped, keeping a safe distance more do to the fact that the gun bearing humans all looked as though they were nearing their last nerve then because he was Worried about the doctor striking out at him.

"Well your organs, they are almost human in shape and nothing at all like the last Wraith I examined, all of the Wraith bodies we collected after the attack had the same organs, or at least placement. You, well. You're entirely different. The forming, the placement, the organs themselves everything is different. Do you feel alright son?"

"I'm starving and I've got a headache, aside from the itching and twitching that I'm getting from all the guns pointed at me and the nervous humans behind them? I think I'm fine. I told you that between the clans differences occur." Looking at the black and white picture he tried to see if anything was wrong or different. "I don't see anything wrong."

"Hmmmm. That is very interesting. So I guess it's more like a cat-dog thing then a human race thing. That is very interesting. Colonel Sheppard I think I'm going to need more then one day. This is amazing! Doctor Douglas look at this it's just… wow."

Dr. Douglas didn't seem to want to go anywhere near the Wraith but Jayden decided to make the human squirm as he had to enter close proximity to him in order to see the results. "Oh wow." The doctor seemed to completely forget the Wraith once he saw the X-ray. "That's just not possible."

"Maybe your machine is broken and the results are wrong?" Jayden offered.

"No, that can't be right. If it was broken then it still wouldn't give results like this… hey… what's wrong with you?"

Jayden suddenly hissed and drew back; his stomach and insides tightening. Glaring at his stomach as the wash of pain passed he looked confused. "No idea. Maybe taking a picture of my insides wasn't such a good idea… grm." He ended with a groan suddenly hitting the floor and writhing.

"What the… Crap!" John snapped rushing forward, angling his gun to the side so that it was available but not in his way. "What's going on?"

"I don't know… has he ingested anything in the last 24 hours? Anything that may cause this reaction?" Beckett asked moving next to his patient and trying to figure out what to do.

"No. Nothing that we know of. But we only got him about 10 hours ago."

"It might have been something that happened before he was captured by us, he was unconscious before." Ronan offered, speaking for the first time since he was assigned to the guard position.

"Maybe, look I don't know what to do, I don't know what's going on, the best thing we can do for him is to strap him in a bed and tie him down to keep from harming himself or others. I don't think stunning him or sedating him is a good idea as we don't know what that will do to him in his condition. He's much hotter than before, he seems to be almost sweating… I don't know what to think honestly."

"Fine, Ronan, Teyla you grab him arms, lets angle him toward the bed behind him. Keep him from struggling too much." John ordered trying to keep the writhing Wraith from kicking and clawing his team members. "Jayden hold still, we're going to help you but we can't help if you don't hold still."

Jayden didn't respond besides hissing but in a second he stopped fighting them and even stopped moving long enough for them to get him up on the bed. The next instant he was curled up in a fetal position shaking and hissing in the middle of the hospital bed.

"What do you want us to do?" John asked Beckett.

"Nothing we can do, I don't know what's going on. Didn't we just tell you that his physiology was entirely different? It'd be like telling a vet to work on a human or vice versa. I could kill him."

"Well he doesn't look so good right now either."

"Yeah well I didn't do it!" Beckett grumbled out and glared at John. "Now you can either help me and my staff strap him down or you can leave. Either way you need to be quiet!" Beckett then moved to try and calm his patient that was trying not claw the bed into tiny little bits.

John and Ronan pushed at Jayden and forced his arms out long enough to strap him down, he then began to writhe and hiss until eventually he calmed down. It took roughly 4 hours for him to stop completely and to fall asleep.

"What do we do now? Until we realize what happened to him we can't send him back to the cage."

"I guess we take up watch, once he wakes up maybe he can tell you what's the matter with him." John suggested, having sat down on a chair and relaxed completely.

"I'll watch with you, Teyla why don't you go and take a nap and then you and Rodney can take second watch." Ronan suggested and Teyla just nodded and headed off, unable to deny that she was tired.

Once she was gone Ronan watched as John slouched more into his chair and while keeping an eye on Jayden he tried not to fall asleep. Ronan found this also an illness he suffered from as his eyes also seemed to be way too heavy. They both tried to stay awake but the mission, the last 14 hours of adrenaline and everything else that's been going on with them conspired against them and they found themselves fast asleep.

* * *

Jayden awoke not knowing what was happening and he found he could not move. Looking down at his arms and legs he found they were haphazardly latched to the bed around him. He just twisted his arms and used his fingernails to finish the job of cutting himself free and undid his legs. Looking at John Sheppard and Ronan fast asleep in the chairs near the bed he suspected they were in charge of watching after him. Snorting he looked around and quickly made his way out of the room. Heading towards the showers he smiled when he found it without trouble.

"I'm hot, I'm sweaty, and I'm bleeding and sore. I'll shower until they figure out where I've gone… Ooooooooo, bath tub!" Jayden smiled in delight upon seeing that they did indeed have tubs in the bathhouse and filled it up. While that was happening he located soap, and something that was called, bath bubbles. Eyeing the directions he figured that this sounded good and following them he was pleasantly surprised at the smell and relaxing properties of these 'bath bubbles'.

"This is nice. I think I'll stay here until they find me." Jayden didn't bother looking for an escape for several reasons.

One: he didn't know where the Stargate was.

Two: he figured that by now his clan must be looking for him and they would find him better if he stayed put.

Three: even if he found the Stargate he figured they had some kind of device to keep people from traveling without permission, and the sheer number of people he'd have to face to get there was daunting.

Then there was the fact that he could never turn down a bath and it was in his right to want one every day, if a day hadn't technically passed he didn't know that, it wasn't his fault.

Last but most important he swore that he wouldn't try anything and they were keeping with their promises he would keep with his.

He judged the time to be at least an hour before he heard an alarm to go off and snorted at the fact it took them this long to figure out he was gone. _These humans are very slow._

He washed the soap out of his hair and leaned back, trying to look as non-threatening as he could while waiting for the humans to show.

* * *

If John was furious at himself and Weir was worse. "I can't believe you left him alone!"

"Well technically he wasn't alone, we were just asleep." Sheppard replied but decided that it wasn't a good idea after it left his mouth.

"Just find him."

"I think we have a lock on him."

"Where?" Ronan and Sheppard asked at the same time, looking at the technician who was in turn looking at the screen.

"I don't know… what's right here?" He pointed to the screen and looked confused.

"The bathroom?" John asked even as the tech confirmed that it was indeed the bathroom where the showers were. "What do you think he's doing there?"

"I don't care; I want him back in his cell or with Beckett to figure out what is wrong with him. Okay?" Weir ordered.

"Yes ma'am." John said then ducked out, motioning for Ronan and Teyla (who had been awakened by the alarm) to follow and get their guns out.

Pulling toward the bathroom he stopped at the sight before him. Jayden was sitting in a large bathtub, bubbles surrounding him, and he looked much healthier than before.

"What the hell are you doing?" John asked.

"I'm sitting in a tub relaxing. Is that a problem?" The Wraith asked raising his eyebrows.

"It is when we don't know where you are!" John snapped.

"Well now you know, is there still a problem?"

"Yes! You need to be back in the lab where we can figure out what happened to you last night."

"It's simple, I'm going through withdrawals and I'll be dead in… 5 days maybe 6 if I'm lucky." Jayden replied ignoring the thrill of fear that went through him at the thought of death.

"What are you going into withdrawals for? Maybe we could help." Teyla asked.

"Classified sorry." Jayden replied and looked forlornly at the bubbles around him.

"Bullshit! What are you going through withdrawals for?" John snapped angry at the Wraith's reply.

Jayden didn't appreciate that and he hissed and for the first time looked like a Wraith.

Sitting up as best he could and turning his unnatural eyes on John he let his annoyance be known. "Listen human. I am a Wraith of the Ladon clan and I have been very cooperative with you. I choose what information I give out. I would tell you everything but it would violate my codes and my Honor to my clan. I would not press you were our positions reversed unless my clan was endangered. Your clan is not in danger except from the arrival from my clan seeking me. The information I withhold does not endanger your clan but it does mine. Now because of how I was raised I am sure that I am way more cooperative than any other Wraith you will meet or have met. Now if you will wait a second I will return to my clothes and my cell thank you." With that Jayden stood up, ignoring all modesty and pulled on the ill-fitting clothes from the day before, his body still wet.

Sheppard was speechless and ignored his immediate angry response but froze instead. _Your clan is not in danger except from the arrival from my clan seeking me. _"What do you mean 'your clan is not in danger except from the arrival from my clan seeking me'?"

Jayden sighed. "My clan looks for me even now." He saw John's surprise and snorted. "Would your clan forget about you and not look for you?"

"No, but we're…" John stopped his train of thought but he realized it was too late.

"Human?" Jayden's whole face changed and Ronan retrained his gun on him. "I think you should return me to my cage now."

"Sheppard, I think we should do what he says." Ronan remarked; his stomach heaving like it always did when he was in close proximity to a Wraith.

They escorted Jayden back to the hold cell and John suddenly understood why it was Ronan liked to pound his fists bloody on the punching bag and decided to do so. Leaving the security men to do their jobs he left and headed there. Satisfied to find it empty he began to do something he had never done before. He purposefully hurt himself.

"What are you doing?" Ronan asked from behind him.

"I'm working out my anger."

"Anger over what."

"It's stupid, we've just killed Jayden. We killed him and he's still here. It's like walking down the street and killing some random guy, then having to have him around for a week."

"Jayden is a Wraith, he'd kill you and everyone in the city without a thought and if we were around for a week he'd use it to suck the life out of us over and over again."

"That's bullshit. He had the chance to try and do just that. He chose not to, what does that tell you?"

Ronan remained silent.

"It's not like we can let him go because he knows where Atlantis is and that this is where he's being held. And that's besides the fact that he is a life-sucking Wraith and I would be releasing him on the unsuspecting populations around the galaxy, then later to haunt us. I know I can't do anything but it's nagging on me. He seems like a good guy."

"It bothers me as well." John and Ronan looked back to see Teyla standing in the doorway Rodney behind her and looking confused.

"I swear I take a nap and the world goes upside down. Were we just considering allowing a Wraith to go free?" Nobody answered him.

"What are we going to do…?" Ronan asked seeing if John had a plan.

"Nothing." Everyone looked at him for a moment before he sighed. "It's not like there is anything we can do."

"But you have an idea."

"I have one of sorts but it's too preposterous." John said and everyone looked at him and quirked an eyebrow. "We could make him swear to never tell his clan where he was and then let him free. I think he'd keep his word; he has so far, besides apparently his clan is already headed here. All we're doing is clearing our conscious…"

"I think that is perhaps the worst idea I have ever heard!" Rodney said. "You're going to put our life in the hands of a Wraith! Not only our lives but everyone else's!"

"I told you it was crazy." John dismissed it and went back to punching his bag until he heard…

"So when are we going to do it and how?" Ronan asked, hating the idea of it but realizing that John wasn't going to feel good about himself unless they attempted it.

John looked at him and smiled.

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! You aren't going to seriously do this are you? This is crazy!" Rodney instantly got the point. "I can't believe we are doing this! You do realize that all this stress is going to raise my blood pressure. I already have high blood pressure; I'm going to have a stroke! I need sugar." With that he turned and left, apparently to get some sugar.

"Well, I think we can count on Rodney to help out. Now, we need to figure out a way to get some private conversation in with Jayden."

"I think that I could take a watch within the security booth. If you want Rodney entirely on board then give him some reason to trust Jayden." Teyla commented. "Give me a better excuse too." She whispered and headed in the direction on Rodney's rooms, knowing he'd be there, leaving Ronan and John a little while to work out anything they needed worked out.

"Do you want to come along or would you prefer to head to bed?" John asked.

"I think I'll head to bed and that way I'll be fresh for whenever you want to pull this off." Ronan headed toward his room but stopped down the hall and John called him back.

"Ronan, when was the last time you ate?"

"I ate once I left the Wraith's cell and then headed to the punching bag." He lied.

"Okay." John said in a slightly unconvinced voice then he turned and headed towards the cell deciding to stop on his way and grab a bite to eat.

* * *

Ronan sighed and lay down in his bed. He contemplated what he was about to do and then decided for about the thousandth time that he was crazy.

"I'm helping a Wraith escape from Atlantis so that John doesn't sleep badly at night. I am pathetic." Ronan had long ago decided that he was a strange Motherfucker and the fact he was gay had no standing on it.

"Why do I always have to pick the straight guy? Or the gay guy that is not interested in me?" He asked his ceiling and the ceiling surprisingly didn't answer back. "Well you never know with the Atlantians do you?"

It didn't take too long for him to sigh and just let his mind wander. After a little while he just fell asleep.

* * *

John entered the cell room and looked around careful to make sure that all personal were in secure locations where they couldn't possible see or hear anything. Moving towards Jayden who was what appeared to be sulking in the corner of his cell he motioned for him to come closer.

"You sure you want to do that?" Jayden asked as he moved forward. "I'm under no obligation not to suck the life out of you." He had now reached the bars but he didn't move to attack.

"I'm sure; I don't think that you'll hurt me unless forced to." John replied with confidence.

Jayden reached forward and wrapped his life sucking hand around John's neck narrowing his eyes. "You don't think I can hurt you?"

"I didn't say that, I said that I didn't think you would, unless forced too." John replied trying to remain calm when everything in him was revolting.

Jayden eyed the Colonel and formed a newfound Respect for him. He released him after a moment and stormed Furious away. "What do you want from me?!" He hissed out.

"I want to help you."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I've personalized you."

"Don't like the idea of knowing the people you're killing?" Jayden asked sardonically, but he didn't require a response and suddenly he looked defeated. "I didn't like it much either. You know when you suck out someone's life force, you inherit all their memories?" He gave the information out of the blue and seemed to daze slightly.

"I can honestly say I didn't know that. But it makes sense because of something another Wraith said to me once." Jayden eyed him and made it clear he wanted some answers. "He said that the 'others would know what you have done to me'. I guess it makes more sense now." John wanted to pursue the interesting path that had been revealed but Jayden switch the focus.

"So what did you want to talk to me about? Or was the whole thing where I almost kill you, it?" Jayden asked.

"Oh yeah. We're going to set you free."

"Huh?" Jayden instantly wished he could have taken back that all too human expression but knew he couldn't.

"I and my team are going to get you out of here but first you have to promise that you won't bring your clan and try to destroy us."

Jayden suddenly realized what this meant for them to be doing this. He looked John directly in the eye and moved until they were inches apart. "I give you my word, as a Wraith of the Ladon clan and as a follower of the Mother that I will never allow Atlantis to be destroyed or overtaken by your enemies if you help me escape."

John could have said something sarcastic but instead he just nodded and left.

Jayden watched him leave and knew without a doubt that he had just gotten himself in deep deep deep trouble with his Mother. "She's going to kill me once she finds out what I just did." He whispered and hoped belatedly that the microphones didn't pick that up.

* * *

John entered the security room and nodded to Teyla before looking at Rodney who still looked a little green.

"You allowed a WRAITH to grab you by the neck with his LIFE SUCKING hand!" Rodney howled at him.

"But he didn't suck the life out of me did he?"

"Well… no! But that's besides the point!" Rodney howled again, trying to regulate his voice with an effort. He eventually settled for glaring.

"No, that is exactly the point. I need your help with this Rodney."

"I don't see where I have much choice, now do I? But don't expect any miracles! I suppose you have a plan?"

"I'm working on one. Yes."

"This is perfect. You know that Weir will kill you for this. And that you are endangering everyone in this little non-existing-as-of-yet plan."

"I'm aware of that yes."

"Okay just so that you're aware." Rodney mumbled and sat back to wait for some plan to form and his place to be made clear in it.

"Well I guess the first step is to get him somewhere with a Stargate because if we use this one then the chance of discovery is greater so unless something really drastic happens then that is a last resort."

"Sooo guess you want me to figure out how long it will take us to reach the next Stargate by puddle jumper?" Rodney asked sarcastically.

"If it's not too much trouble." John answered sarcastically.

"Fine. Fine. Fine." With that Rodney left to go find out what he could.

"What do you want me to do?" Teyla asked.

"Be ready." Teyla nodded and was about to go search out her bed when he spoke again. "Oh and Teyla? Thank you for trusting me."

She nodded her head and left. A few minutes later the next shift in guard came and Sheppard finally turned to his bed.

* * *

Ronan awoke like he always did and began to make his rounds. He had made it a habit to look in on all of his team in the night.

He passed Rodney's room where he slept on his custom-made bed, the doctor snored and after Ronan made sure all was well he left to pursue quieter quarters in the form of Teyla's.

Teyla slept lightly and Ronan always found it a challenge. If he wasn't very careful she would wake up and he would have to explain what he was doing in her room at night. He found it the perfect way to keep his skills honed.

Creeping into her room he looked at her to make sure she was asleep. Upon seeing her sleeping he checked her room and moved out. He lost focus and knocked a statue, he froze before making a grab and barely catching it. Cursing himself silently he moved it back into place and glanced at Teyla. She still slept and he made it to the door with no more incidents.

"Goodnight, Ronan." Teyla whispered.

Ronan winced but answered. "Goodnight, Teyla." He left and sighed.

_She almost always catches me. Idiot._

He moved to his last stop and didn't worry about making any noise. Rodney awoke at the level most people awoke at. But John would sleep through a bomb and not realize it.

He entered the room but stopped. John's bed was slept in, as was obvious by the twisted sheets that had fallen off the side of the bed but he wasn't there and that he hadn't been sleeping well. His heart froze and his stomach went into his throat before he began to tell himself that nothing could have happened to John and he was being stupid. Glaring at the messed up bed he had a sneaky suspicion where his leader was.

Moving even further down the hall and a few hallways over. He entered the room where the security cameras were to find that the men in charge of watching over the screens were fast asleep and that they snored as much as Rodney.

He looked at the screen and was surprised at what he found. Sheppard sat down on a pillow, he had a blanket wrapped around him and was talking to the Wraith who looked very similar to him. They were talking and Ronan turned up the volume careful to keep the volume below what would wake the sleeping guards.

"What's it like where you come from?" Jayden asked.

The form of John seemed to hesitate but he shrugged. "I don't really think of it any particular way, I've lived there all my life and just recently found out that there was even such a thing like a Stargate. I guess it's mostly like everywhere else."

Jayden cocked his head. "Except that it's more crowded? Are there really millions of humans there?"

John seemed to be wearier. "More like billions."

"Wow. Billions of humans. I see why you don't want other Wraith to go there. It'd be a massacre. I'd like to see it before that happens though."

"I don't think that's the best idea. You wouldn't exactly fit in. And there will be no massacre; we'll destroy Atlantis before that happens."

"You won't have to destroy Atlantis and I know I wouldn't fit in. Sides I don't think that you people would like the idea that a life-sucking Wraith is moving among you."

"You said it not me. But other than the crowdedness it's so much more than any other planets. There are countries, governments are more advanced, technology, cars. The diversity is amazing. It's like a million worlds all mixed into one."

"How do you keep from killing each other?"

"We don't mostly, there are wars and wars and wars. There is always some part of the world that is at war. But the wars don't kill off the planet because of diplomacy."

"Ah. That I understand. I'm a diplomat…" Jayden's form seemed to wince but Ronan couldn't quiet tell since the camera's resolution wasn't that good.

"A diplomat?"

"I shouldn't have told you that. But, yeah. I'm not allowed to fight in the clan disputes. My job is to make sure that our allies know where we stand and that if they want to stay on our good side that they should follow the rules. I also make sure that our enemies fear us; that we have enough goods for everyone, food, clothing, etc." He seemed to sneer when mentioning the non-fighting part of his job, as though that was the worst thing in the world, but pride over his job and role in the community seemed to shine in the end.

"I never thought of Wraiths as diplomatic creatures."

"Well… We are. Sorta. It's complicated and…"

"Classified I get it. Why aren't you allowed to fight in clan disputes?"

"It's a family history thing. My family has a history of… unpleasantness…"

"Oh this could be interesting spill." John said and Ronan had to concur silently curious about the answer.

"Well it's not classified. But it won't help you in anyway."

"But my curiosity is peaked."

"It's hard to tell the sorry. Usually I would send mind pictures to you to go along, telling it mostly in memories passed to me by my father etc so that you have firsthand experience… I'll try to do it your way of telling, but it's not as good." Jayden frowned and was silent for so long Ronan and John almost thought he wasn't going to continue, and then he opened his mouth.

"From the time of my grandfather. This is about 11,000 years ago, shortly before the war with the Ancients." Jayden hissed evilly at the name and Ronan felt his body tense but relaxed as the Wraith stopped. "My Grandfather was just 100 years old, the Mother was around... well we don't know her age, she and already had 300 hive ships at her command."

"300 HIVE SHIPS?!" John snapped his eyes widening and he looked decidedly sick.

"Did I say something wrong?" Jayden looked confused.

"Did you just say 300 hive ships?"

"Well… yeah. You must remember that we were way more numerous before the war, and though our clan is the largest now, most didn't agree with The Mother and so while everyone fought the Ancients we were one of the smaller groups."

"How many hive ships does this Mother have at her disposal now?"

Jayden seemed to pull back. "I'm sorry, it's classified but I can tell you about the others hive ship numbers…"

"Really?"

"Sure. Let's see, there are the Cerberus clan, Minotaur clan, Artemis clan, Apollo, Hades, Charon, Poseidon, and Hera. They're our enemies and so I can share their numbers. Total there are 1,431 hive ships. And separately Cerberus has…" Jayden was cut off.

"What? How are we going to fight that many?" John seemed to despair and he cut them off. Ronan felt every nerve in his body fire and tense. The idea of that many Wraith made him sick.

"I do not know."

"We thought that there were only 80 and that was enough to make us worry. How are we going to fight 1,431 hive ships?!"

"One at a time preferably. Besides, only the Artemis clan is fully awake as of right now, and they only have 65 hive ships left. As to what can you do, I suggest that you go back home, and destroy this place. It sounds like you're in over your heads, it be different if you had allies. Do you have allies?"

"No. But we can't leave. We don't have the power; we barely have a ZPM left."

"ZPM?" Ronan didn't like that suddenly his captain and the Wraith were sharing information, classified information, with such ease.

"Zero Point Module. It's like an amber thing, it glows when it's on." John motioned, uncovering his shoulder when the blanket slipped and was forced to cover himself again.

"Hmm… I think I might know what you're talking about." Jayden seemed to be smiling.

"Really? Where did you see something like this?"

Jayden looked up at the monitor and then motioned for John to move closer. He said something to John that made him start back, but the microphones in the room weren't able to pick it up, no matter how close Ronan was to the screen.

"But how?"

"I'm sorry John; I cannot share that information. Only the Mother or those who have her express permission are able to tell you that. Besides, I would not know how anyways. I am but a simple diplomat and as I was saying before, I am not trusted."

"Oh yeah, back to the story." Ronan wanted them to stay at the line of questioning but John didn't seem to want to. Maybe he was afraid that Jayden would stop talking.

"Well back then my Grandfather was second in command. But he wasn't satisfied. The Mother was young and he felt that he could take her on. He broke apart our army in his bid for power. Those that followed him, and those that followed the Mother.

"He had many many more ships but somehow Mother won. They say that entire ships would float by, all the crew dead with no sign as to how. All of them frozen in terror. There was no way to find out how they died. For some reason The Mother spared my Grandfather. He stood before her; broken, the horrors of his war against her plaguing everyone's minds, families destroyed through this power struggle, and she spared him. By this time it was time for the war with the Ancients, my grandfather, though was not restored to his place at her side. Instead he went to war and fought for her. 9000 years later, after my father was well into this world at 6000 and I was a mere baby 140, my grandfather had worked his way back to the top.

"He was a bodyguard for the Mother. Then one night, he betrayed her again. Him and my father, my mother, and all my uncles, aunts, cousins. Everyone old enough to fight all moved on the city and the home that held the Mother. They made it all the way to the Mother, she sat serenely on her throne, and then she held out her hand.

"Everyone in the room holds testament to this momentous occasion. The assassins all started screaming, clawing at their heads. Soon their minds were gone, lost in the terrors that only they and the Mother know.

"All those of the court that survived told her to kill me; that all the hatred in my blood line would transfer to me and I to would betray her. At the time if I had had the power or strength to kill her I would have. I knew she knew this yet she did not kill me. She took me into her home and raised me to be a bodyguard, but even after almost a thousand years had passed, the councilors still watched me always, and no one trusted me. All thought that I would kill the Mother as soon as I had the chance.

"I knew that she would never deny me my place as her head of the guard, but I felt that if I stayed in such a position that she would soon be left as vulnerable as though she had no guards. No one listened to my orders unless she were around to command them to obey, and even then they were prone to 'doing their own thing'. Eventually I gave up and resigned as her head of guard, though she refused my resignation and said that only a substitute would be in place so that no matter what, if I ever wanted back at her side, I could.

"No one wished me to be a diplomat, but I need no one to follow my orders, and only the Mother to listen to me. So I became a diplomat.

"I am not trusted because of who my family was. No matter what I say or do, I must always be on the lookout for assassins that would have me removed as a threat to the Mother." Jayden finished his tale and sighed. Probably wishing he had chosen to stay with his 'Mother.'

"I'm sorry about what your family did."

"It is fine." Jayden yawned and stretched. "I'm sorry I seem to be falling asleep, maybe we could finish our discussion in the morning?"

"Sure." John got up and gathered his stuff together. "Goodnight."

Ronan moved and stood before the door, waiting for Sheppard to pass by him.

"Ronan! I didn't know you were still up…" John looked decidedly guilty.

"Where has he seen a ZPM before?" Ronan went straight to the point.

"I think you want to follow me; unless you want to go ahead and wake Rodney and Teyla and then meet me in the control room? It'd be faster that way…"

"I'll wake the others." Ronan left to do just that.

Ronan found it not at all difficult to get Teyla up and she left immediately for the control room. Rodney didn't want to wake up, the letters ZPM changed his tune and he was out the room and down the hall before he realized that he was only wearing his boxers.

He turned to head back to his room cursing himself but was saved the embarrassment by Ronan who carried a shirt with him. "I couldn't find pants…" He said apologetically, trying hard to keep his amusement out of his face.

"This is fine; I don't want to miss anything." They raced down the halls and made their way to the control room.

Teyla and Sheppard awaited them, and Dr. Weir stood looking confused but not as though she was just awoken from sleep. "Now, John tell me what is going on here."

Sheppard took a seat at the briefing table and everyone took seats as well. "I was talking with Jayden."

"You were talking to the Wraith? Was he talking back?" Weir was right in asking this question as all the other Wraiths that had stayed here had only threatened.

"Yes. Anyway, somehow our conversation turned to ZPMs. And he asked me to describe them." John paused, obviously waiting for someone to ask him what Jayden had said and the light and happiness in his eyes was enough for everyone in the room to comply.

"AND?"

"He said he believed that he had seen such things on his home planet. Apparently thousands of them. Maybe even Hundreds of thousands." John looked so pleased and Rodney looked as though he was going to pass out from shock.

"HUNDREEDS OF THOUSANDS? That's IMPOSSIBLE! How? More importantly, we could bring EVERYTHING online; imagine with all the power, we could defeat the Wraith!" Rodney's scientist was taking over and he looked as though he was just given the best Christmas present in the world.

"I'd hate to burst everyone's bubble here. But are we sure that this Wraith is telling the truth? I mean, Wraiths aren't notoriously trust worthy…" Weir had to add, though everything scientist in her was begging for this to be true.

"Elizabeth. I think he's telling us the truth. I hate to say this, but I think that he's different."

"Different how?"

"I like him. I think that he could be a valuable ally."

"How can you say that? He is a Wraith, in case you've forgotten; he sucks the life out of, and kills, humans."

"I know, but even though he was given the opportunity to do so, he didn't. He was free and moving around and he didn't do anything harmful, all he did was take a bath! He had his hand wrapped around my throat, he could have killed me then and he didn't. I think that we can trust him not to betray us. The last time we had an opportunity even similar to this, we ruined what peace Ilayna had…" John clamped his teeth down to stop the words. He hated what had happened to Ilayna and felt that they were partly responsible because they hadn't been friendlier to her.

"Are you willing to stake everyone in Atlantis's life on it? Cause I'm not. If this Wraith was able to report back to his superiors then they would bring their army down on us and kill us all, then move on earth. We barely escaped last time."

"It doesn't matter! There are thousands of Wraith hive ships out there! 1,000 and more! Once they find us again, without ZPMs we'll be defenseless. Jayden thinks that they will send a probe soon, to check for survivors, etc."

"And you believe him?"

"It does make since, Dr. Weir." Teyla spoke up. "Why wouldn't they send a probe? The Wraiths are nothing if not suspicious."

"So you think we can trust this Wraith too?" Weir asked surprised.

"I think that this Wraith is different. Perhaps he is trustworthy; he has done nothing so far to prove his dishonesty or unreliability."

"Aren't you Americans in to the innocent until proven guilty thing?" Rodney asked, sarcasm lacing his voice.

"You believe in him as well?" Weir seemed shocked.

"I believe in Sheppard. It amounts to the same in this case."

"Ronan? Please tell me someone has some brains here!" Weir snapped, looking for an ally when she suddenly seemed surrounded by crazy people.

"I apologize but I'm insane as well."

Weir looked at her most trusted team. "I can't let you endanger this base. I'm sorry but no."

"I volunteer to go, I'll make sure that he'll keep his promise, if I don't call in every hour or so then be prepared to do something. I think that the gain is worth the risk!" John pleaded. "Colonel Caldwell can take over once he gets here, which will be shortly. This could work. And the worst thing that could happen is that we speed up the inevitable. What if somehow they figure out that we're still here? There is no way that we can beat 1,000 some hive ships as we are right now. We don't have much of a choice Elizabeth."

It was somewhat surprising when everyone else said that they would like to go too. The smack in the face though was Rodney's offer to go, which held no hesitation what so ever. "Rodney, you too?"

"Don't look so surprised. Thousands of ZedPMs? The possibility is enough to make me head into a Wraith planet with no backup, or hope for escape."

"That's positive thinking Rodney." John muttered.

Before Weir could tell them that there was no possible way that this was going to happen a sleeping looking guard appeared looking very ragged. "Colonel Sheppard. It's the Wraith. He's acting weird. Something's happening."

Sheppard didn't waste any time and everyone followed swiftly behind. Upon reaching the site, John and Ronan rushed forward, quickly undoing the lock on the cage and rushing forward to pin Jayden down. They forced his nails from his stomach, where claw marks leaking blood soon made their hands slippery and wet.

"Jayden, calm down. Jayden. Jayden. Ronan get his feet better." John moved his head to the side as a knee passed where his head had been.

Jayden arched off of the floor hissing, his arms now over his head and pinned to the floor where John had his knees on them. Ronan cursed and grabbed the writhing Wraith's legs and pinned them down. It was his turn to hiss, only his hissing was at the audience and it was understandable. "One of you get Dr. Beckett in here."

"Yes, sir." The unidentified guard replied, he barely got the words out before he was gone, wanting to get something right.

Weir looked in horror at the Wraith on the floor and Teyla rushed passed her to push his chest down and Weir moved forward to help Ronan with his slipping hold on the Wraith's feet. Rodney kept glancing out the door and looking for Carson.

Dr. Beckett arrived carrying his medical kit and looking as disheveled as everyone else. "What's the emergency?" He asked before his eyes fell on Jayden. "How long has this been going on? Let me look at his stomach, Teyla keep him all the way down and hold him on his chest so I can see it." He fired off orders and questions as he moved forward grabbing Rodney by the shirt and dragging him into the open cell.

Everyone did as ordered and Beckett crouched down near the wounds. "These aren't healing… Jayden. Jayden. I need you to hold still again like you did last time. I need to look at these wounds okay?" He used a voice most people used to talk to children or cornered animals.

Jayden growled, he seemed to try, his breath caught and he stiffened every muscle in his body, but it only lasted for a second before he lurched again.

Weir watched him convulse over and over again. He never made a sound louder than a low growl when most men would be screaming to bring the roof down and no one would think of it at all. She looked at John and everyone else in his group; all of their faces were tight and strained from holding the Wraith down. Yet they did not seem afraid that Jayden would hurt them on purpose.

Dr. Beckett moved forward with a large needle in his hand. He tried to stick him with it and Jayden lurched away. "Jayden, calm down, this will help with the pain; it'll also put you to sleep for a little while. Hold still one last time and I'll make the pain go away."

Beckett stood prepared and after a few seconds Jayden stopped lurching, all his muscles tense and twitching. Carson didn't hesitate, he plunged his needle straight into the soft stomach where blood was still leaking.

The pain of the injection being delivered so quickly on top of the pain he was in finally broke his bubble of silence. He didn't scream or yell, he ROARED! Everyone within hearing distance was deafened and they covered their ears in vein. The second that Jayden was released he curled into a fetal position and stopped his roar, he whimpered in pain. It seemed like forever before Weir could hear anything at all but it couldn't have been that long because Jayden was still whimpering.

Teyla inched forward on her knees and began to rub the suffering Wraith's back.

When he didn't show any signs of feeling better, besides the whimpering stopped, John looked at Beckett. "When will this kick in Doctor?"

"I gave him enough to kill an elephant, literally. I don't know what else to do. It'll work, I know it will." Beckett didn't sound at all certain though.

Jayden just tightened his hold on himself. The blood flow from his stomach seemed to be lessening but nowhere near what it should.

"Why aren't his wounds healing?" Rodney asked no one in particular.

"He's starving. I theorize that the regenerative powers of the Wraith are directly proportional to when it last fed. The more time between the last feeding and the wound, the longer it takes to heal." Beckett said; worry coloring his voice making his accent worse. "But I don't know what happens if they haven't feed in a while. Maybe they regenerate like us, maybe not at all."

* * *

Jayden tried hard not to howl over the Pain in his middle. As his senses slowly returned he was abruptly Thrilled that the humans couldn't understand what he was saying. _Just because you're dying isn't reason to say THAT to them._ He snarled in his head.

He stopped his hissing and went limp as suddenly he couldn't feel anything at all. _What the? Oh right, the liquid they injected into me, about time it worked! _He didn't move as the hand that was rubbing his back continued and he figured that they thought he had passed out or died.

"He's stopped." That was a female. One he hadn't heard before, he considered the pros and cons of trying to roll onto his back so he could evaluate the damage better and the situation vs. laying here under the administrations of the female Teyla's comforting fingers. _I think I'll stay here._

"I think that the tranquilizer and pain killers kicked in." Beckett's voice drifted over making Jayden frown.

"You think he's dead?" The voice that spoke now made Jayden's skin prickle. Ronan.

"Jayden? Are you awake?" John Sheppard's worried voice made Jayden rethink moving just to assure them that he was okay and he prepared to do just that.

"He can't possibly be conscious after the dose I gave him!" Beckett spoke and then swallowed his words as Jayden uncurled with a grunt.

"I think I'm offended that you think me that weak Dr. Beckett." He grumbled out with false bravo and no anger. Truth be told he had to suppress the need to find a corner, weave a Cocoon, and go to sleep for a few years.

"How are you feeling, son?" Beckett seemed to just realize what he said but Jayden was too flattered to allow him to take it back.

"Like I was just thrown in a cage with a Wilder and then dragged out long enough to think myself safe before going back in." Jayden blinked at what he just said. "I shouldn't have said that…. What you do to me human?" He growled the end and stumbled up glaring at Beckett and resisted the urge to grab him and shake the answers out of him.

"What do you mean?" Beckett asked in confused, an innocent look about him.

"Why can't I stop talking? Why am I fuzzy? Why am I telling you this? W…" Jayden slapped his hand over his mouth with a look of horror.

"Are you saying that you can't seem to control yourself?" The unidentified female asked.

Jayden clamped his jaws down and for once realized that he had an almost clear path out of the room, only John stood in his way. With no other thought then to run he rushed John and knocked him down escaping and dodging through instinct as a red ball whizzed by him and shoots followed. Rushing down an unfamiliar corridor he moved away from where the human smells were the strongest and went towards the smell of sea and dust.

He soon found that the very building itself was blocking him, the door closing of their own accord, and he crawled up in the pipes once he was locked into the room. He could hear the alarm and people moving about, boots clicking and he threw out his senses stretching to the farthest expanse of his ability and heard nothing but a slight reverberation that he recognized as the 'human' Teyla. Swallowing the fear that had caused him to Panic he growled at himself at his flight.

_What are you planning on doing? You've probably lost any chance of being freed without the war that Mother will bring. Clumsy, idiotic, you deserve the Longing that you feel. You don't deserve to be a Seeker._

He felt towards Teyla and with a slight prayer tried to seize hold of her mind. He was surprised at the fight she gave but he was able to seize control relatively easily.

_Be calm Teyla, I will not harm your people. _Jayden growled to her.

'_GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'_ Teyla responded with a clumsy grab at the controls.

_You would be formidable with a bit of training human, but not enough for me, now be silent._ Jayden then Tuned her out and shoved her to the corner of her own mind.

* * *

"Teyla? Can you sense him? Where is he?" John asked worried at Teyla's jerk a moment ago. When she opened her eyes John turned his Wraith blaster on her knowing that Jayden was there not her.

"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, if your people do not open the doors of the city and stop hindering my progress out I will be forced to kill the men I come across. This is your one warning and I give it to you only because I respect you. My promise stands even though these unfortunate circumstances should void it." Jayden looked at him and the others for a second longer. "Release me, I do not wish to kill your men!" Teyla jerked again and inhaled sharply as the Wraith let her go.

John looked at Weir. "This is up to you Dr. Weir." He hated the words that came from his mouth, he felt betrayed that Jayden had done this and he wanted nothing more than to find Jayden and shoot him, repeatedly.

"Do you think that his people will truly come for him John?" Weir asked.

"I don't know, I think so though."

"In the slight chance that they don't already know where he is, gather the teams, send them into the west wing's main living quarters, tell them to use whatever force necessary. I don't want to take any chances." John nodded at her orders and began to order his team in there when she told him that he would not be the first team that Major Nelson would go first.

Major Nelson nodded and his team saluted and headed off, their guns loaded and ready.

John watched them go and watched their progress on the life sensor monitor.

"John can I talk to you?" Weir asked hesitantly.

John looked at her, at the monitor and back to her before following.

"John, how are you doing?"

"Fine, he didn't push me hard."

"John, I know what you're thinking…"

"He betrayed us. I was stupid and I shouldn't have talked to him, that's what you're thinking and everyone else is, including me." John said, his tone resigned and slightly hurt.

"That is not what I was going to say, but he didn't betray you. I've been thinking. Why did he run?" Weir pushed on after John tried to open his mouth and cut in. "He was afraid, and even when he pushed you you said yourself that he didn't hurt you, he could have thrown you to and through the wall, I'm thinking, at least enough to knock you out. He could have attacked me or any of the others and held us hostage. After he escaped he didn't head towards the Stargate even though he probably could have overpowered the people there too; he moved to the empty hallways that would keep him from hurting others. Jayden then sent out a warning not to come after him and said he would keep his promise, something he had no reason to do." Weir withheld the question about what the promise was. "Overall, I hate to say it but I think that maybe, just maybe you might be right. I think he might be different."

"It doesn't matter anymore." John said as he heard a commotion at the life-detector and guessed that Jayden was down or dead.

"Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Weir. I think you need to see this." Private Nelson, the brother of Major Nelson, looked very sick.

John and Elizabeth moved into the other room and looked at the screen. "There is only one dot… Oh god."


	2. My Fault

This takes place before the retro virus is anywhere near done and now it is considered a failure. It happens sometime after the episode with John and Ford in the hive ship.

Thank you for the review KaylaisEvenstarI'll not stop until I think that people no longer want to read it. Then I'll just stop posting because this is how I get the ideas out of my head.

Joulezthank you also for your review and I only wrote it so long because I was bored and my brain wouldn't let me sleep. Some chapters will be longer then others. :D

DevilBookWorm I like your name :D and I'm glad you like Jayden's. Thank you for reviewing.

(Authors Note : I just went in and tweaked some grammar and sentence structure, nothing big)

* * *

Chapter 2

_My fault._

John looked at the screen and his only thought was _my fault._

A team of six men had just died. _My fault._ Everything in him told him that it was the Wraith that was the dot, not one of his men. Men that trusted him, that he was in charge of, had just died because he had forgotten that Jayden was a Wraith, because he had felt sympathy and remorse for killing this Wraith. _My fault._

"I think that he made good on his promise." The sick looking Private Nelson didn't look at anything besides the screen. As though he were wishing that it wasn't true. "Doctor Weir, I would like to be on the next team to go in."

"Do you think that's wise, your brother…" Elizabeth was cut off as Teyla who had been standing nearby suddenly jerked and shouted, her shout was cut of abruptly and she stood in a strange posture.

"I told you what would happen, now let me out." Jayden was speaking through Teyla erasing even the slightest possibility that it was one of the humans left in the room.

"No way. We don't negotiate with terrorists." Weir said forestalling anyone else.

Jayden just looked at them, and then Teyla's whole body shuddered in a massive sigh. "So be it." Then he was gone again.

Teyla shuddered on her own and looked thoughtful. "Colonel Sheppard. I think that he was truly upset. I also sensed something; I think perhaps he is injured."

"Thank you Teyla." John said absently before moving towards the guns and other assorted weapons.

"Colonel, you aren't going in there." Weir said firmly.

"Why not? I'm not sending in more men to die!"

"How many people will die if you are killed and we are left without you?" Weir countered.

John pressed his lips into a thin line. "I will not send anymore men in there!"

"I've got an idea." Rodney said half raising his hand. Weir and Sheppard turned to face him with upraised eyebrows. "You might not have to send anyone in there… Let time do the work. He's been going through withdrawals right? Well I can testify that they are a pain and whatever it is he was on it much longer then what we were on, right?"

John saw where he was going and suppressed a traitorous wince that threatened to cross his face.

_I'm a soldier, not even an enemy deserves that. _

_What about the ones that he'll feed on? What about the men that you just allowed to die?_

_My fault._

It surprised everyone when Ronan snorted and looked disgusted. "Oh don't tell me!" Rodney snapped at him.

"It's not right. That's worse. I've been through it, so have you McKay… He's a soldier he deserves better than that." Suddenly Ronan seemed to remember that Jayden was a Wraith and he looked decidedly sick.

"Be that as it may, I'm not sending anymore people in there to die." Weir stated. "I think we're going to go with Rodney's plan."

* * *

Beckett who had been standing back looked as sick as Ronan had.

_Oh God. What am I to do? I can't just leave him, I took an Oath…is he covered? What are you thinking Beckett! He's as human as many people that you've met…does he deserve less because he's a Wraith?_

_No way Weir's going to let me in there…I'll just slip back and…_Beckett sighed as he entered the hallway and headed towards his clinic. Dr. Douglas was there still looking at the amazing X-rays they had taken from Jayden. He looked up when Beckett arrived and tore his attention from the material to focus on him.

"When do we get to examine the Wraith again? This is fascinating, look at the way it's all aligned. There is no way that this is functioning, it's not scientifically possible. He shouldn't be able to function at all, but he is. I need to speak with… what's wrong?" Dr. Douglas ended his tirade with confusion at Carson's face.

"Jayden's escaped."

"WHAT? But how are we going to ask him ANYTHING if he's escaped? This is awful! We won't learn nearly as much if he's dead! We didn't even get to do brain waves on him!" Douglas looked as though he was going to rant forever and Beckett held up his hand to forestall the continuance of it.

"He's trapped in the west wing's main living quarters as of right now."

"This is wonderful… Wait… Please tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking?"

Beckett just smiled at him and headed towards his now constantly packed emergency kit. "Well, I can't say that I'll be able to run any tests on him. And it's going to be very dangerous; there is a slight possibility that he will kill me…"

"What do you mean 'you'? I'm coming too! I have my own questions!" Douglas looked as though he was going to kill Carson for even suggesting that he couldn't go.

"You can write your questions down." Knowing that this wouldn't be satisfactory because the questions largely depended on how he answers he wasn't surprised at Douglas shaking his head. "If you come with me I can't guarantee your safety!"

"SO?! I'm going Carson. And there is nothing you can do to stop me!" Douglas glared and began to march and help carry some of the things that Beckett was lugging around. As they headed closer and closer to the west wing his mood improved because Carson wasn't trying to stop him and he was actually smiling when they arrived at the west wing's doors. Only to find them locked. "What are we going to do?"

"I've picked up on how to open these doors from Rodney." Beckett then proceeded to remove a panel and frown at all the workings. Douglas was about to ask if he actually remembered when he smiled suddenly and shifted the glowing slides around and the door hissed open. "Go it will only remain open for a minute."

Douglas grabbed the gear and lunged into the room following Beckett's example and was glad as suddenly the doors snapped closed leaving them in total darkness.

Beckett tried to look around and pulled out the flashlight moving the light around to try and see. "They must have cut off the power… Jayden? Jayden? It's Dr. Beckett." He flinched as suddenly a voice boomed.

"You should not have come Dr. Beckett… Who's that with you?"

* * *

John and Weir stared at the life sensor's readings. "Who are those two dots? Private Nelson, look on the life registers and figure it out."

"Colonel it is Dr. Beckett and Dr. Douglas, Sir."

"What are we going to do?" Weir whispered looking at the screen.

"Sending in troops will get them killed no doubt. They appear fine and Jayden's with them now… If the situation seems to be deteriorating then we'll reevaluate, but as of right now let's wait." John looked at the screen and hoped he was right.

* * *

Beckett whirled around and flashed his light looking around desperately for the source of the voice. Before he could speak up Douglas did.

"It's Dr. Brian Douglas, do you remember me? I was…" He was cut off.

"I remember you. You were fascinated with my 'X-rays'." The word sounded strange and tumbled from his mouth.

"Yes, yes! I wanted to ask you some questions. Please."

"Jayden? We wanted to talk to you… please come out." Beckett looked around desperately.

"Why should I come out?" Jayden asked his voice magnified a thousand times by all the walls bouncing his voice around.

Suddenly there was a groan. Beckett moved towards the sound and peered still moving towards it. "We just want to talk…"

Jayden suddenly appeared out of the shadows, the walls behind him covered in the same web-like substance that was in the ships. "You shouldn't have come Beckett. I like you. I hate to do this to you. Goodbye." He rushed at Beckett. Beckett and Douglas shouted as his hands touched them.

* * *

"Colonel Sheppard! Dr. Weir! Beckett and Douglas are gone!"

"What? Where?"

"There is only one dot left. Again."

"What are we going to do?" Weir asked looking sick and sad, tears welling up before she pushed them down and grabbed a firm hand on her emotions.

"I think we should follow Rodney's advice still…" John said looking at the screen as though he could will everyone's dots to reappear. _My fault too. My decision to leave them there; not to send troops. My fault._

"Unless the 'drug' that Jayden's withdrawing from was really just him hungry, and then there is nothing that we can do." Ronan said suddenly thoughtful.

John, Elizabeth, Teyla, Rodney, and everyone else looked at him as though he had spoken of some nightmarish thing and had brought it to life by doing so.

"No… No way. Not possible, why would it have been 'classified' then?" John said shaking his head.

"Maybe because he didn't want you to know that he was hungry? Maybe because he was planning something like this all the time?" Rodney asked sarcastically. "But that's right; he's an honest Wraith right?"

"He did say that if we sent anyone in he would kill them. So far as far as we know he's been telling the truth about everything… why should this be different?" Teyla pointed out.

"Because if he's always telling the truth then that means that this blurry dot on the deep space sensors is really there and not a glitch." Came a voice from behind. Everyone spun to stare and sure enough there was a fuzzy dot on the outer edges of the screen and as everyone watched it got clearer and moved closer and closer.

"It's coming at an alarming rate, according to this it'll be here in 5 hours tops, for some reason our other sensors didn't detect it until recently. And we can't get a clear profile on it either." The unidentified technician answered the questioning faces. "We don't know how big it is or anything, just that it's there and moving fast. Maybe the speed in which it's moving has something to do with the malfunctioning?"

"What about that?" Rodney asked squinting and pointing to what appeared to be nothing slightly off to the right of the existing dot.

"What's what?" The technician asked moving forward and squinting. "I don't see… oh." The spot that Rodney had been pointing to still looked empty. Then a second later John and a few others began to pick up the slight outline of something different. Just a few minutes later everyone in the room could see the small pink dots that were moving and surrounding the ship.

"Oh no." Someone whispered from the back of the crowd.

"I think that those are… Hive ships…" Rodney whispered, though the slight sound carried in the dead silent room. "But if they're that small compared to the other ship then…"

"Mother is coming." Everyone spun to face Teyla who was obviously possessed by Jayden.

"I don't think that Teyla likes you taking her over all the time." John said sarcastically when all he really wanted to do was hunt down Jayden and make him bleed.

"I don't like that you took me from where my people were and then drugged me to tell you what you wanted to know while pretending to be nice." Teyla then smiled in what was obviously just a show of teeth. "But I'm over that now and you should send a message to the Mothership."

"The Mothership?" Rodney asked his voice choked up. "I can't believe…"

"Rodney." John warned even though there were chuckles other places in the room even in this serious situation.

"I don't understand humans." Jayden spoke looking confused.

John opened his mouth to explain. Then snapped it shut when he realized what he was about to do.

Jayden then looked back at the screen. "I can't believe she's coming. When was the last time she was out? 1,000 years? 2,000? What am I saying?" Suddenly Teyla's eyes cleared and she stumbled.

"Maybe I should be sedated so that doesn't happen again." Teyla spoke looking very disturbed.

"Who will sedate you Teyla? There's not anyone able too. Dr. Beckett and Dr. Douglas are…" Weir trailed off looking back at the life sensory detector.

Everyone looked at the life sensor and its single blinking dot.

Weir seemed to think aloud. "What are we going to do now? We're under attack with an enemy locked in a defensible position. Our head surgeons as well as several military personal are dead and we haven't gotten anything useable. Negotiations with the Wraith were actually going well and now this." She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes.

Everyone in the room looked anywhere but at their ailing leader.

Weir collected herself. "We'll need some more defenses. Private Nelson." Private Nelson snapped to attention. "Dial Earth and apprise them of our situation."

"Yes, ma'am." Nelson began to dial and set up the connection as Weir walked back towards her office. John trailed behind her and Teyla and Ronan behind him. Rodney looked at them for a moment and then with a grunt turned to the deep space sensor screen and tried to figure out the numbers for how big everything was and how many Wraith were coming.

Rodney looked at his calculations and then back at the screen. Hew redid the calculations and came back with the same number. Panicking and cursing he redid them once more.

Turning McKay towards where Weir was conferring with the others and burst into the room interrupting Weir mid sentence.

"5,625,000." He gasped out.

"What?" John asked the obvious question.

"5,580,000 Wraith are going to be at our door step in a matter of 4 hours and 23 minutes." Rodney clarified.

"How do you know this?" Weir asked.

"A Hive ship is about 4 times the size of a cruiser right? And a hive ship is usually accompanied by 5 cruisers with 10,000 Wraith each. Each cruiser holds in addition 20,000 fighters with a one Wraith crew. That's 150,000 Wraith before we factor in the Hive ship. Which has 120,000 Wraith in it. Now this ship that's coming has 4 hive ships surrounding it and let's just say they are fully equipped with their cruisers. 1,080,000 Wraith for its escort. 4,500,000 roughly inside of this ship if the numbers are distributed like the ships we've had the privilege of examining." Rodney looked like he was going to be sick or explode or something. "I've done the numbers over and over and the least we're looking at is several million. But my guess is 5,580,000 Wraith are headedcoming dead for us and there is no way that we can pull a disappearing act with Jayden in the building and my guess is that they know we're here anyways."

"Oh. My. God." Weir breathed.

"There is no way to stop that kind of power. We had problems with two hive ships. To the point where we almost blew up Atlantis. Now 4 hive ships are coming and a Mothership. Now that name isn't so funny."

"What are we going to do?" John asked looking at Weir.

"First off we evacuate the shore. McKay give your numbers to the Earth base. They need to know."

"The connection is closed." Rodney told her.

"Then reopen it." Weir told him.

"Yes. Yes. Of course." Rodney then left the room towards the gate.

Teyla closed her eyes and frowned. Her senses reaching out she tried to reach the ship and succeeded. She frowned when she realized that she wasn't doing so on her own and she had somehow used Jayden's mental power as a sort of booster.

"Teyla? What are you doing? Are you okay?" Sheppard asked.

"I am fine. Give me a moment. I am trying to discern something." Teyla murmured and the room fell silent.

* * *

Teyla slipped carefully into the web of mental waves and she found herself hearing voices everywhere. She did not try to pick out a specific brain like she had before but merely floated hearing many conversations at once and picked out one that sounded like what she was looking for. Teyla hoped that the way she was going about this that she wouldn't be detected and/or taken over.

'_How much farther until we reach the city of the Meddlers?' _A female voice, old and bringing the sense of age beyond imagining, spoke.

'_Perhaps a sixth of a day Mother.' _A male voice answered and the sense of about 4 hours was given. This voice was mature and not unpleasant, the hissing minimal.

Teyla found that much of the mental paths were feelings and images that were interpreted into words.

'_Have you been able to reach Jayden?' _The Mother asked her voice leathery and Teyla found it soothing.

'_No Mother. We would be unable to speak to him for maybe another 15 Pulsings of the Life Source.' _The male voice that now spoke had a feeling of hissing as though a snake was speaking.

'_Thank you Jeremiah.'_ Mother spoke.

Teyla was about to pull out when a voice that was female and young broke out. '_But Mother… What will we do once we reach the Meddlers' home? Will we destroy them while Jayden is still within their walls?'_

'_No Marishna. We will gain Jayden back or we will destroy them. Mayhap we will leave them some survivors once we are done…'_

Chuckles filled the path. Coming from all around and Teyla fought down the swells that pushed her from them. _'Perhaps not.'_ The Mother spoke.

'_Do you feel that?'_ Suddenly Teyla sensed fingers grabbing at her; dragging at her. _'Spy!'_

Teyla gasped as she wrenched free and reentered her body. She jerked forward her eyes snapping open and she glanced around wildly. No one had moved since she had last closed her eyes.

"They are coming for Jayden." She told them. At their insistence she told everyone exactly what had happened and had been said.

"The Meddlers? 15 pulsings of the life source? Some of the things that they said make sense and some of it is confusing."

"Obviously the Meddlers are the ancients." Sheppard spoke up.

"15 pulsings of the life source? Maybe 15 minutes? 15 seconds? Or a time frame similar to that?" Ronan offered his analysis.

"Less then that now. Perhaps they are speaking even now." Elizabeth commented.

"Then we will assume that any advantage is forfeited for as long as the Wraith Jayden resides here." An unidentified voice spoke up from the doorway.

Everyone spun around to face the new comer. Ronan had his gun in hand and was pointing it before anyone else could even see the man.

"I'm Colonel Anderson and I want you to give me any information you deem prudent because I'm taking over this operation until the threat is gone." The man continued and Ronan lowered his gun.

Weir looked at him with disapproving eyes. "We tried that last time and in the end all you all did was give us time to come up with a plan that worked."

"I understand that but what we are doing here is trying to make sure that we have enough firepower to destroy Atlantis completely. That is now the primary objective." Colonel Anderson looked at the people gathered and saw the desolation his words had infliction though he saw no surprise. "We will evacuate and bring as much equipment and knowledge as possible before we destroy this wondrous city."

"Permission to speak." Private Nelson spoke up saluting.

"Permission granted." Colonel Anderson told him, his curiosity peeked.

* * *

"Most of the written text and books that are on Atlantis are in the West wing where the Wraith is now located." Private Nelson's eyes were dead and calm even though he spoke of the creature that had killed his brother.

Nelson didn't feel as though his brother was dead and he refused to even think of such a possibility no matter what the 'life-sensor' said. _He's dead. Now weep and feel something damn you! Let him go so that I can go on._ He shouted to his heart.

But, no matter how hard he tried to bring the reality of his brother's death, no matter how many times he told himself it over and over, no feeling came of it. It was as though he spoke of the sky being green. The idea was so preposterous that his brain refused to consider the possibility.

"We will have to kill him that is all." Colonel Anderson said reasonably.

* * *

"I have already sent in a group of highly trained operatives and they have died. We have also lost our doctors." Sheppard looked a little strained at the last part. _My fault. Useless waste. _

"What happened to the doctors? Why were they in contact with the Wraith?" Colonel Anderson looked perturbed and curious.

"They went into the area where the Wraith was… They're dead." Rodney spoke up looking as forlorn as everyone else in the room.

"Why were they in the room?"

"We don't know." Elizabeth spoke up. "Dr. Beckett was with us after the first group of soldiers disappeared and then the next thing we know they're on the life-sensors screen and then they were off the life-sensor screen."

"Are we going to be able to get all of the people and technology out?" Weir asked defeated.

"We think…" Anderson trailed off as Teyla twitched.

Teyla looked around and frowned at Anderson. "Who are you? Never mind… Sheppard." Jayden turned towards John and ignored how Anderson suddenly pulled his gun and trained it on him. "I was able to get a hold of Mother and she says she won'twont destroy Atlantis if you let me go and the pact that I've made before will stand." Jayden smiled at the humans before looking again at the new one. "I still don't know how you are…"

"How are we supposed to trust you?" Weir asked the obvious question.

Jayden blinked at her. "I've not broken my word in all the centuries I have lived!" Suddenly he turned back to Sheppard. "I could not get you security clearance to the classified thingsstuff Sheppard but I tried. Mother says that she must judge your worth for herself. If I could get you that clearance you would believe me…"

John just looked at him with hatred. Ronan turned towards Jayden and he said very calmly. "I am going to kill you."

Jayden didn't look surprised. "And sacrifice all of Atlantis?"

"We no longer think that that's going to be a problem." John said his tone level and angry. He wasn't just angry at Jayden he was angry at himself, but he knew that he was going to take it all out on Jayden. _My fault. _Sheppard inwardly winced and didn't even bother trying to kill the voice in his head.

Colonel Anderson looked at Teyla who he realized was no longer present. "Who are you?"

"I asked first." Jayden replied now ignoring Ronan and John.

"I am Colonel Anderson. Now who are you and what have you done with Teyla?"

"I am Jayden and Teyla is still present, I am merely borrowing her body because she is the only one who is tuned to me. How is that and what are you doing here?"

"We are not playing twenty questions here." Sheppard snapped, angry over the similarities from when he first interrogated Jayden.

"Why is it I always end up answering more questions than you do? I believe that last time you ended with two answers more then I and now you wish to do it again?" Jayden snorted in a very human fashion. "That's not polite."

Anderson eyed Sheppard and Jayden as they stared each other down. "I don't know why Teyla can do what she can and the reason why I'm here is to defend Atlantis from your kind."

Jayden looked at Anderson and, with a look similar to someone who suddenly found the person they were talking to was a simpleton, explained to him. "That is no longer necessary. Mother will open connections with your people shortly, I suggest you listen to her, she is very powerful and is..." Jayden groaned and clutched at his stomach in Teyla's body.

Teyla screamed then slumped, her body going limp as she passed out.

John pushed his chair back and jerked across the table to catch her head before it struck the table. "Owww…" he complained as Ronan picked her up to lean her head on the back of the chair.

"What's the matter?" Rodney asked worried that whatever had happened to Teyla would transmit or something.

"I scratched my stomach on the table's edge is all." He looked down at his pajamas and winced. "These aren't very protective, maybe we should change?"

"Yes I think that's best since this room is getting cold. What?" He snapped at the looks he was getting. "I retain the cold and am feeling it in my feet, my bones are aching. If you haven't noticed I'm barely wearing pants!"

"We've noticed. Okay… how long do we have until the Mothership gets in range to start doing damage?" Weir asked looking at Rodney.

Rodney looked at the watch on his arm. "2 hours and 13 minutes. Now can I get dressed? Everything that needs to be done is being done now. And as much as I hate to admit this there is nothing I can do."

"Everything's being taken off to Earth?" Weir asked.

"Yes, everything is being taken care of. Didn't I just state this? Teyla's people are now being taken to Atlantis. I think that they can come back to Earth with the rest of us, right? See? Everything taken care of…" Rodney left the room and ignored the chuckles and outright laughter that followed in his wake.

John looked at Teyla and thought about where he could put her. "Should we put her in her room or the infirmary?"

Teyla suddenly groaned and rolled her neck on the back of the chair to lift up and look around.

"Hey Teyla, you well… you?" John asked.

"I am me." Teyla replied wincing and touching her stomach as though it were sore. "Though I wish Jayden had taken this pain with him."

"Are you hurt?" Ronan asked.

"Just some lingering pain. How it does not drive Jayden insane? I cannot describe it." Teyla rubbed her stomach absently. "It is gone now. But I think it is safe to say that whatever it is that was affecting him still is." Teyla didn't mention that she was humiliated over how he was repeatedly able to shift through her defenses in such a manner.

Ronan's face was completely still as he seethed inside. Everyone dispersed in the direction of their rooms and Ronan started to head towards his when he noticed a figure in the corner of his eye. He turned his head in time to see a dressed Sheppard disappear into a storage room.

_I bet I know what he's doing._ Ronan thought silently as he moved towards the room and peaked in. _Yep._

"If you're going so am I." Ronan and spoke up making Sheppard jump and look back clutching at the gun he was loading and checking.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." John looked at Ronan and then just sighed. "He could have gotten over his most recent episode already. Then the danger increases exponentially. Why am I even bothering? Pick out your favorite things and let's go before they clean out this room too."

Ronan grabbed every knife he could find, several guns and a bullet proof vest. He turned and joined Sheppard. They trotted down the hallway together and dodged other trotting men. "Wow. This place is like a bee hive that someone's shoved a stick in."

"Yes but it's giving us a perfect cover to go where ever we want." John huffed as they neared their destination and the crowed thinned.

"Look." Ronan gestured to where the door was still semi-cracked from where Beckett had made his entry. "Let's pop this open and get this over with one way or another."

"Okay give me a sec this is more Rodney's area then mine." John began to move the blue slides around and the door hissed open. "Alright let's go."

They trotted in the room in the square of light formed by the open door. Ronan covered John's back as they eyed everything they could see from the ceiling to the darkest section. Shinning their lights all around the room Ronan felt his stomach suddenly clench at all of the material on the walls. _Not now. Please. Give me more time and I'll pamper you later promise._ His stomach didn't listen but at least it didn't make him throw up.

"Where do you think he got this material from?" John asked motioning towards the wall on his left.

"I don't know." Ronan responded. They began to move forward after John slid the blue disks around the control panel on this side of the door.

"Come out come out wherever you are." John raised his voice so that it echoed off the walls around him. "We know you're in here."

Silence was the only answer he got and he moved slowly towards the back of the room.

"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard." Weir's voice came over the intercom. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Getting rid of this menace once and for all." John replied.

"I think that you are letting your judgment be clouded by personal feelings John." Weir's calm voice answered. "What if what he says is true and the Wraith leave after getting him back?"

"What if he's lying? They may be coming but that's no reason to let another Wraith out there to feed on innocent people. People we're leaving behind." John snapped back continuing to move towards the back and right of the room; away from the web like material that littered the left.

Weir didn't respond and Ronan felt the tension rise in the room.

* * *

Weir was suddenly preoccupied as the wormhole was activated. The alarm was especially load as everyone who had been piling supplies near it suddenly froze. The shield went up but nothing collided with it.

"Incoming transmission." A random technician whispered.

"Where is it coming from?" Weir's voice suddenly sounded loud even though it was drowned out almost completely by the alarm.

"We don't know but it's coming in as a radio signal." The techie reached over and turned off the alarm and turned up the volume on the console in front of him.

"People of Atlantis. We will not attack you. We wish to speak with you. We mean no harm. Please respond." There was a pause. "People of Atlantis. We will not attack you. We wish to speak with you. We mean no harm. Please respond." The definitely Wraith voice didn't change as it continued to repeat the message over and over, leaving breaks for them to respond in.

Weir looked as Rodney trotted into the room. "What's going on? I heard the…" He trailed off as the Wraith's voice repeated over the intercom. "Is that for real?"

Turning towards the console he pushed the techie out of the way and his hands flew over the keyboard as he analyzed the data the screen gave him.

"What do you want to do?"

Weir listened as the Wraith repeated the message and the break got longer. "Well they already know that we're here since the wormhole opened even if they weren't sure before. I don't see what the harm is from hearing them out."

The voice suddenly broke from the monotony. "People of Atlantis. We will not attack you. We wish to speak with you. We know you are there and I am personally getting bored. Respond." The break was a bit longer than before. A sigh rippled through the room. "People of Atlantis. We will not attack you. We wish to speak with you. We mean no harm. Please respond."

"It seems they're getting impatient. Prepare to open a channel back to them." Weir told Rodney who nodded while looking uncomfortable. "John? Listen. The Wraith on the ships headed towards us are trying to contact us and I could use your expertise."

John froze halfway through his search of the room; he and Ronan had searched the room from the right and were moving towards the left wall checking every inch from the front wall to the back wall. "What are you talking about?"

"The Wraith sent a radio signal and we need your input. Come on John, if there is any way to save Atlantis we need to do so. Jayden might be crucial to the negotiations."

John tried to brush it off, but after just a few moments the implications sunk in. "We're coming in."

He motioned for Ronan to follow him and Ronan hesitated for a few moments as he looked back towards where they thought Jayden may lay. "Coming." He turned away and followed John.

A moments work took care of the doors again, and a moment more to close it behind them. The two men dodged through the crowds that had piled up near the Stargate room and then up the stairs. Entering the room he listened as the mantra repeated and frowned. "Are we truly going to believe this bull?"

"We don't have a choice, besides, as long as they keep the wormhole open there is nothing we can do but wait for the time to end or the Wraith to terminate on their end. Why not give it a shot? Don't you want to save Atlantis? More than the 20 percent that we can take? Cause I sure do."

"Dr. Weir? Everything is ready. If you want you can speak to them whenever you want." Rodney spoke up with a gesture towards the computer.

Dr. Weir took one last look at John and turned towards the Stargate. "Open connections."

Rodney reached across and clicked on something. Weir took a deep fortifying breath and called out. "This is Dr. Elizabeth Weir from Atlantis. You wish to speak with us?"

There was a moment's pause over the intercom. "Yes. I am a 1st class Ladon official and captain of the Hive ship _Golden Apple_. While we wish to destroy you; if you allow us to retrieve our officer we will not. We are under the impression that so far he is unharmed and if he remains so we will leave."

"Why should we believe you? You and you're people have come an incredibly long way just to turn around. And how do we know that you will not tell other Wraith where we are?" Weir asked.

The silence was long as the Wraith on the other end seemed to be thinking. "I do not know any way to make you trust us but in less than an hour's time our ships will be in a position to destroy Atlantis. What harm can come from allowing us to retrieve our operative? What good is it doing us now to contact you?"

Weir thought for a long time and gestured for the link to be muted. Looking towards Teyla and Ronan she asked. "Have you ever heard of Wraith acting in such a manner?"

Ronan and Teyla looked at each other. They both shook their heads.

"Then we will have to assume that they are telling us the truth." Weir gestured again and the link was back on. "I have thought over your proposal and I have to ask, why is this Wraith so important that you would allow us to live, just to retrieve him unharmed?"

The male Wraith voice spoke after a moment of thinking. "We value the lives of all our Wraith, Dr. Elizabeth Weir. You may not think that a single life is important, but we do. There is nothing beyond that."

Weir raised her eye brows. "We will have to think over some security measures. How can we contact you?"

"My ship is leaving here shortly; the others will be arriving in your solar system in 60 beats. They will contact you then." The wormhole closed before anything more could be asked or said.

"Well, I think we should get everyone we can out, as well as all of the information we can. Then, a skeleton crew will remain here and see how the transaction goes. And if need be…" She looked at all of the people around her. "Destroy Atlantis."

"Dr. Weir. Permission to speak." Private Nelson waited until she nodded until he continued. "I wish to be on the skeleton crew. Please."

Dr. Weir looked at him for along moment weighing the need of her officer with the need to keep everything objective and antipersonnel. Finally the need of her officer won. "Private Nelson, I will allow you to stay on the one condition that you will remain objective. Is it a deal?"

"Yes ma'am."

"What do you think you're doing?" Colonel Anderson looked back and forth at everyone. He had been out of the room during the Wraith episode and he was furious. An officer had briefed him once he had entered the room and now he was livid. "The United States of America does not negotiate with terrorists." Before he could continue Weir jumped down his throat.

"For one thing the United States has ALWAYS negotiated with terrorists, that's just the public face, another this is **not** the United States. This is Atlantis and I am the head of this facility, not you and not the Untied States. Is that clear?"

Colonel Anderson looked like he was about to explode but all he did was nod.

"We will still need all of the explosives set… has Zelenka been able to make the simulation work?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Colonel Anderson seemed to have regained his voice. "Atlantis will be destroyed by a remote detonator, or if you prefer we can set up a timer?"

"I think a timer would be best, for let's say… 3 hours? That will give plenty of time to see how this is played out and the override code will be the same?" At his nod she set about getting more and more people off of Atlantis before the swap went down.

John Sheppard who now realized that nothing he was going to say would have any meaning sighed. "Elizabeth? I'm on the crew left behind."

Weir just nodded. Right after that Ronan, Teyla, Rodney, and a few other people all volunteered and Weir found herself with 38 people remaining with her. Making sure that everyone of them knew the danger they were in she finally accepted all of them.

With 13 minutes remaining till the ships, now clear on the sensors, arrived Weir and her small people all found themselves rechecking guns and repeatedly checking the clock or the sensors.

John looked around Atlantis, the place that had been his home for almost 3 years now. Remembering everything that had happened his thoughts turned to the people around him.

Nelson, who had been so wide eyed when he'd been transferred to be with his brother that his eyes had almost popped out of his skull. A kid at heart and a fellow football fan. He had just started taking flying lessons from his brother earlier that week. Now he was alone. _My fault._

Ronan, who didn't gain any weight, though he ate anything and everything. Loyal to a fault with anger problems a mile wide. Animalistic to the extent that he growled when he was angry enough and bared his teeth.

Teyla, beautiful and never giving herself credit for it. A leader who was willing to follow, strong willed and a fantastic fighter.

Rodney, whiny and a complainer but he always got the job done. Brilliant if sometimes egotistical, someone to watch and laugh at if the times weren't so tense. A man who has more issues then any hundred people John could conjure up.

Jenna, a scientist that once she was set on a course, could not be deterred. A fellow worshiper of chocolate and a co-conspirator on keeping the best of the junk food out of enemy (other Atlantians with a sweet tooth) reach.

Weir, a leader who thought only of her people and their needs. A diplomat and a scientist. A woman so fantastic he couldn't even begin to mention the other wonderful things she is capable of.

Martin, a loner who was a lover of fine artillery.

Chris, a Russian who now muttered over all the calculations to make sure that Atlantis would be amply destroyed. John felt a fleeting urge to learn Russian so that he could speak more to the man, then discarded it with a sigh.

Meghan, Brian, Charles, David, Edgar, Tim, Mike, Millie, and a group of Australians who John didn't know.

_These are the people I've killed. These are the people my rashness and naiveté has killed. They're going to die and it's going to be my fault._

"They're here." Rodney whispered as the radio crackled and another male Wraith voice came over it.

"Atlantis. This is the captain of the Rescue. Requesting permission and terms of landing."

"Here we go." Ronan said quietly, though in the dead silent room his voice almost boomed.

As though the words were some kind of switch everyone began to move and readjust to get into place.

"This is Atlantis. We are receiving you and are ready to list our terms." Weir began.

John set off towards the Puddle Jumpers and he tried to drown out the voice in his head when he saw the strain on everyone's faces. Especially Nelson, who now had to put the few lessons he had together and try and fly. Nelson looked at John and they exchanged grins as they reached the bay.

Nelson didn't say anything but John knew that he was thinking of just a day or so before when his brother had been teaching him how to fly. Now he might join his brother sooner then they all realized.

_My fault._


	3. Appearances

I HAVE 7 REVIEWS! *Runs around in happy dance* People are reading! AND REVIEWING! I LOVE REVIEWERS!

I heard somewhere that only 10% of all readers review… I wish it were more because I love feedback even if it's just 'I read your fic'. Or it could be a flame which is okay cause then I can fix what's wrong… anywho ON WITH THE FIC!

(Author's Note : I went through and corrected some grammar and sentence structure errors, nothing big)

* * *

John sat in the jumper and tried to keep from looking at the co-pilot and waited until Elizabeth gave the order to attack or to provide an escort. He checked the systems and the gadgets and set the cloak on. He watched as the other four ships around him also cloaked and tried to keep from worrying over where the Atlantian ships were.

* * *

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "We are willing to give you back Jayden with these conditions. One, you will not tell other Wraith where we are. Two, you will not attack Atlantis, now or after. Three, only two Wraith will come to retrieve him. Lastly you will be escorted in and under armed guard until you leave our atmosphere. No weapons, on your craft or on your people, will be permitted at all. Our terms are subject to minute changes to fit the situations that may arise. These are our terms."

The male voice from the other end was careful. "We are willing to agree on these terms except the one where only two Wraith are allowed to go in. Jayden is a strong Wraith and if he is having… problems then at least four Wraith soldiers will be needed to keep him subdued and then a male will be needed to make sure that they don't cause a…. misinterpretation. At least five Wraith will be needed."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows; honestly they were willing to allow the Wraith to change any of the terms besides the last one involving weapons. "We are willing to allow these changes. Four soldiers, and a male Wraith to make sure they remain diplomatic."

"We will be sending a cone in to retrieve… Jayden. It will hover outside of your atmosphere waiting for your escort."

"We will send them." Weir heard the connection terminate. "Well that wasn't so bad." She looked around at the tense people that had chosen to remain with her.

"Like removing a bandage." A person from near the Stargate said. Tense laughter rippled around the room.

"A big, scabby, super sticky bandage." Rodney said. The laughter that followed after that was a little less tense.

Weir clicked on her COM link and gave the orders. "Disengage your cloak once you have them in sight. Oh, and Sheppard? Nelson? Remember we need to be diplomatic, we cannot have an incident."

"Yes, ma'am." They reply was distracted and automatic from both of the men.

* * *

John used the sensors to see where the other jumpers were while they flew towards the Wraith cruiser that was floating in orbit over Atlantis. He looked out into space and saw what appeared to be a never ending sea of Wraith battle ships. _Oh no._ Any thought that maybe they could withstand an attack long enough for reinforcements or something was instantly crushed.

Shanking his head at his thoughts John moved his ship in the pattern he and the other pilots had worked out. Nearing the ship he began to count down. Once all of his ships were in place he called out over the COM link. "Three, two, one… Now!" With perfect timing they all uncloaked. After a moment a Wraith's voice came on over the radio using the same frequency the Wraith had used to reach Atlantis.

"We are ready."

Sheppard didn't say anything as he wheeled about and he and his men turned and led the cruiser towards Atlantis. They flanked the ship, two behind, and then led with two in front. They circled around the landing pod once and then phase one was complete as the Wraith cruiser landed.

John and his men landed quickly and the pilots and co-pilots swarmed out to cover the Wraith now stepping out of the cruiser. As promised one male Wraith and four Wraith with the strange face masks appeared from out of the ship.

* * *

The male Wraith strode between all of the soldiers as though he owned the world and was comfortable in his throne. "We are here, we are unarmed as promised, and we will now take back what is ours."

The male Wraith watched as the apparent leader of the men tried to keep his hatred off of his face, the human then gave signals to his men and they were escorted towards the large building.

The Wraith was surprised by Atlantis standing so intact and looking unaffected. Unlike most of his fellows, he could remember the way Atlantis was during the war. Once they reached the powerful space ship the Wraith got his first look at what he had tried so hard to destroy.

_Beautiful. Almost worth keeping the humans around to keep this place like this. Memo to self, speak of this to Mother._ The Wraith looked around trying to keep himself as nonchalant as possible even when they were completely surrounded by people, almost all of which were armed.

A female strode forward and looked him in the eye and he calmly set a hand on the soldier in front of him and it stepped aside. The female stood in obvious authority, the Queen of this human hive. "Dr. Elizabeth Weir?"

"Yes. If you'll excuse us we would like to have you walk through this thing, it will tell us whether you wear any kind of weapon or such." Weir looked nervous and all of the humans Broadcasted their fear to a point where a teen would be overcome with it.

"We said we were unarmed. But. We have no problem with complying." Soldiers One and Two both stepped through the machine first and they eyed it. After a moment they calmly looked back and Sent that it was okay to try. The Wraith went next and he felt a quick almost shudder run through his body. All of the humans without weapons were looking at the machine's readouts and nodding. Soldier Three and Four walked through the thing and Four, once it got out, looked very much like it was going to smash the machine. Sending Calm to it, the male Wraith also told it that if it messed this up that they were going to turn it Feral.

Four quieted down easily and went back to its spot. "Now can we retrieve… Jayden?" The Wraith tried not to show his awkwardness at the language he was being forced to speak. _Why couldn't anyone ELSE go?_

Dr. Weir gestured for them to follow her and they did easily. The humans all fell into place as an escort. As they walked towards where Jayden's Broadcasting was coming from. The male took this time to look around and observe the things around him as he walked. "Where are the rest of your inhabitants? This place seems awfully big for just you humans."

Instead of the female Queen answering a gruff looking man that was sick answered. "They are in another area where they can help but be out of harm's way."

The male raised his eyebrows in what he understood as a human gesture of impertinence and refrained from calling him out on the lie.

They approached a door that was locked and a man that smelled of worry, fear, and soap came up and plugged a flattish box-like-thing into the wall. The male barely refrained from going over and seeing what it was he was doing as the doors hissed open to reveal a darkened room. He could see the walls had a thin layer of Holding on them.

"He is in there." The human Queen spoke.

"Yes, we will retrieve him; we do not need your assistance in this." Without waiting for permission the male strode into the room and into the darkness with the soldiers following behind quickly.

* * *

The Colonel watched in fascination as Weir's mouth worked but her voice didn't. "Ronan, Teyla, Nelson with me. The rest of you remain here and wait to be called or to attack."

Sheppard had barely gone more than ten feet towards where the Wraith had disappeared when suddenly the male's face was there. Jerking his gun up and ignoring the pounding in this ears Sheppard heard him say. "We have retrieved him."

Walking with a confidence that gave the impression of a king, the Wraith sauntered past him and all of the jerking soldiers followed behind. John dropped his gun to point to the floor, and tried hard not to think of how easy it would be just to kill them all now.

When he reached the light where the Wraith was forced to wait for Sheppard's men to move aside John saw that the soldiers were jerking over the twisting and flailing Jayden. His face a mask of torment Jayden was desperately trying to clutch at his stomach and the four hulking Wraith pulled his limbs apart so he couldn't. There was black blood covering his abdomen where he had tried to claw the pain out.

John gestured for his men to stand aside and they did so reluctantly. The Wraith fell into step behind Weir as she showed them towards the exit only to stop short as she did. Teyla moved past John and suddenly he realized something. Nelson wasn't there.

John turned and started to head back into the gloom. _He's probably looking for his brother's body. _"Go on. I'll get Nelson."

Weir raised an eyebrow before nodding. She headed towards the Wraith ship with the small parade of people and Wraith following her. Teyla made as if to stay with him and he waved her on.

"I can handle this." He told her. _Besides… it's my fault._

Sheppard looked into the dark room and decided to leave the lights off. _He'll not appreciate having to face this in the light right now._ Heading towards where the Wraith had set off he tried to find his man.

As he moved deeper into the living quarters he saw more and more of the strange material usually found on Wraith ships. Turning the corner around the hall off to the right of the main quarters he froze beside the frozen Nelson.

Before him was the most beautiful sight in the entire universe. Wrapped in the webs on the walls stood all of the members of the team sent into kill Jayden, and Dr. Beckett stood on the end right before Dr. Douglas. Breaking out of his paralysis Sheppard rushed forward and, unsheathing his knife, cut away at the material holding Beckett suspended.

Nelson still hadn't moved by the time John got Carson down and he looked back to see what was wrong. Nelson stood staring with tears running down his face at his suspended brother. "Private Nelson? Could you please remove Major Nelson and the others from the webbing?"

As though he was walking towards his only salvation, Nelson made his way to his brother and touched his face. With a smile he ripped at the webbing with his bare hands and tore it away. "Eric? Eric? Wake up!"

Carson Beckett began to stir on the ground, where Sheppard had placed him after detaching him. "Ugh. That wasn't pleasant."

"Beckett are you okay?" Sheppard laid another man next to Dr. Douglas who he had also removed from the webbing on the wall.

"Well… my limbs are asleep and I can't seem to get enough air in my lungs but there seems to be no lasting damage." Beckett said. "And I've got a headache from hell." _Beckett must really be in pain to be cussing._

Sheppard laughed as Douglas groaned and told Beckett to quit being so loud, while the other three men that began to wake up told Beckett to shut up and give them drugs for the headache.

Nelson clutched his brother to him and Sheppard tried to give them privacy but could hear every word.

"I knew it. I knew you weren't dead." Nelson whispered in his brother's ear. Then he squeezed his brother tight.

"Bus... it had to be a bus… that's the only thing that could have run me over and hurt this much… that or a train. Davy, you're squishing me. Davy… I think you're bleeding." Major Nelson had squirmed out of his brother's hold and was now grasping his brother's shoulders.

"I knew you weren't gone… I knew it." Nelson ignored his brother's concern until Beckett reached over and grasped his hand.

"Son, I think I can see the bone." Beckett tapped his com-link. "Nancy I need you to prepare for a stitching job… Nancy?" Beckett tapped his link again. "Hello?" Receiving no answer he turned to the still working Sheppard. "Why isn't this working? Please tell me I didn't break it."

Sheppard snorted as he laid the last of the team out. _Beckett and his fear of breaking sensitive electronic devices_. "No, Nancy isn't here."

"Well, why the bloody hell not?" Beckett asked indignant. "Where is she?"

"Earth."

"Why is she there?"

"We are under evacuation procedures…"

"Because of Jayden?" Douglas asked looking a little better and more alert.

"No because of the Wraith that came to pick Jayden up."

"There are other Wraith here? Wraith like Jayden?" Carson asked confused. Suddenly his face lit up at the same time Douglas' did.

Sheppard was about to ask what was up when Beckett lunged forward and grabbed a bag of supplies that had been propped up against the wall. Apparently forgetting his headache for the moment he and his fellow doctor launched towards the door. Clicking his COM link on the common path used to reach Elizabeth he could be heard shouting. "Elizabeth don't let those Wraith leave!"

Looking at Private Nelson Sheppard asked quickly whether or not he would be able to handle this. Getting a nod John followed the sounds of Carson's voice. _No way I'm gonna miss this._

* * *

The male felt distinct Unease as he felt the Pain emanating from Jayden diminishing. Sending to the soldiers to halt and move off to the side the male ignored the way the humans reacted.

"What are you doing?" The sick one asked.

The male ignored him and set his hands lightly on Jayden's quivering form. Feeling past Jayden's Pain and Fear the male tried to assess his physical state. A gun was pressed to his head for a moment, for the sick human was trying to force his attention from Jayden to answer his question, but was instantly jerked away as soldier Three stepped up and let out a grunt of Anger.

The male Wraith was satisfied with what he found in Jayden's body and instantly stood from his crouching position. The incident had lasted but a moment but the male found himself facing twenty guns and humans that looked a breath away from pulling the trigger. Especially the sick human that was now pointing his gun at Three.

Three was being very good as it just stood there and did not react. Setting aside another mental note to give Three a treat, the male looked at the female Weir who was standing behind the armed humans with some other unarmed humans. "Jayden's Pain is passing and I…" Cursing he rolled through the words in his head and tried to find the right word for the Feeling. "Considered… that his life might be closing and I was Feeling to see if that was the… situation." The sentence didn't seem quite right but Weir apparently understood the meaning and she nodded and moved back towards him.

"How is he then?" Weir didn't really care how Jayden was but she was trying to seem interested.

"His life will continue… for now." The male responded. "He will be able to walk shortly and it is uncomfortable for the soldiers to carry him. If we wait…" He Broadcasted Frustration out without meaning to and Four shifted a bit as though uncomfortable. "Twenty-seven or Thirty Pulsings of the Life Source."

The nervous and fearful man Broadcasted something very close to true Curiosity and the male was amazed at how deep a human could Feel. "Pulsings of the Life Source? What is that in human terms? Minutes? Seconds? Similar? Different? How much so?"

Three by now had moved off to its station and all of the humans, even the sick one, had lowered their weapons as well. The male found himself curious about how humans measure their time. "What is a minute? Or a second?" Confused the male couldn't help but reveal his ignorance of the human language. "Does a second not come after a first?"

The humans all seemed to release some of their fear and the nervous man was curious enough to leave the relative safety of the armed men to come closer. "The second I am referring to is a measurement of time." At this he looked down at a thing strapped to his wrist. "One one-thousand. That was a second. There are sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day."

Fascinated by this measurements the male felt towards the Life Source and measured its Pulsing by these fascinating things called seconds and minutes. "Forty-two seconds a Pulsing, so between 18 minutes and 20 minutes. What is that on your wrist?"

The man looked down at his watch and moved closer for a moment. "This is a watch. It tells the time and mine even tells the date. See… these are the twelve hours of the day."

"You said there were twenty-four hours in a day." The male stated.

"There are. There are two twelve hour increments. One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock. eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock." The human pointed to each of the numbers as he told the male what they stood for.

"How do you tell which of the two in-crim-it-s you are on?" The male asked sounding out the new word.

"There is AM and PM. AM is the morning times and PM usually the evening times. The sun usually rises between 6 AM and 7 AM. The sun sets, or goes down, between 7 PM and 8 PM." The man looked as though he were going to continue with his fascinating time measurements when suddenly everyone looked at Weir.

The male noticed that she looked even paler then is normal for a human. "Beckett? Is that you?" She whispered.

Suddenly every one of the humans reached for a small device the male had noticed strapped to the side of their heads. The nervous human's device spoke with a strange voice and the male was able to hear every word it said. "_I repeat don't let the Wraith leave! I must speak to them!"_

"Beckett we thought you were dead." Weir said with what sounded like Surprise and Joy. "What happened are you alright? Where are you? What about the team sent in and Dr. Douglas?"

"_I'm here." _The device spoke with the same type of voice as the human Weir. _"We're fine and we'll explain everything. But please tell me that Jayden hasn't left!"_

The male began to get worried that the humans wanted Jayden to remain. Weir replied that they had hit a sss-nag in their plans and were stopped in the hallway east of the control room. Two and One tensed as the male Sent to be ready for conflict. "I think that Jayden is fine now." This was true as he had finally stopped convulsing and was panting lying behind the male. "We are ready to leave now."

"I'm sorry but could you wait a moment." The human Queen sounded Anxious and the armed humans all shifted back towards Aggression.

"We wish to leave." The male responded. All of the soldiers shifted in response to the humans around them.

"Oh thank God." Came a strange sounding voice from the hallway as a running human arrived. Following closely behind was another male and the male leader that had greeted the male at his ship.

Jayden groaned as he sat up and looked around with a frown on his face. "I thought I Felt you. Why am I still here?" He looked past the male and his Broadcasting changed to Weariness for a moment before it stopped. "Hello Sheppard."

"Jayden." The strange voiced human walked up to Jayden as he stood up and showed no fear what so ever. "What was that you did before? That film covering us. What did it do? I could have sworn that it was only minutes ago you were emerging out of the darkness and then I was waking up on the floor groggy and covered in the film."

Jayden ignored the human before him and looked at the human leader he had referred to as Sheppard. "You lied." Sheppard said his voice calm as he announced this preposterous thing.

The male could not stop his Rage from Broadcasting nor the hiss that erupted at those words. Fortunately Jayden was able to respond and keep the soldiers from lashing out. "The Lhadohn clan doesssssssss not Liehhh." The male hissed out. The way the humans reacted the male almost suspected that they could Feel his Broadcasting.

"I did not lie Sheppard." Jayden said, calm despite the horrendous accusation that he would lie. "I told you I would kill anyone who came after me did I not?" Not waiting for a response he continued. "The Holding I placed the men in killed them, stopping their heart, body functions, and brain patterns. They were no longer able to metabolize, grow, reproduce, or response to stimuli; all things that classify a living organism. So they were dead. This death was caused by me so I killed them. Once the Holding was removed they then begin to 'live' again. This does not change the fact that I killed them."

Sheppard looked at Jayden for a long moment and Weir did as well. The male Broadcasted his true Amusement at their flimsy Broadcasted amusement. "We are masters of the… loop hole."

A human female, the only other one besides Weir, looked at him strangely and he had the strangest Feelings from her. It took a moment for him to realize that he could Feel anything at all from her. _'What are you?'_ He Sent towards her.

The way her eyes widened he knew that she had Heard him.

The human with the strange voice looked at Jayden for a few minutes. "Are you alright, son? You're looking a little pale." He moved forward and did the gutsiest thing the male had seen from these Atlantians yet; he reached up and pressed his hand to Jayden's forehead.

"I will be fine Beckett. But I must leave now." He turned to the male. "We are leaving now."

The male felt his Hatred rise, but he bowed his head Broadcasting Submission. He was nowhere as skilled at fighting as Jayden and so he was lower in the pecking order. "Yesss. We will leave."

Jayden nodded to the humans to lead the way and the male had a Feeling that the human Sheppard wished to speak more, all of the humans did, but they seemed at a loss for words. The Wraith were all led back to the landing platform and their cone without any more delays.

* * *

Exactly 1 hour and 32 minutes after arriving, the Wraith left Atlantis.

Weir gestured for all of her skeleton crew to head in and they stood staring at the deep space sensors. To no one's surprise all of the Wraith ships turned and left at the same speed they arrived.

"Well that was kind of anti-climatic." Came a voice with a Russian accent from the back of the group.

"You're telling me." Weir whispered. "Alright everyone I need someone to sit here and tell me if they turn back here. Sheppard come here, I need your code to help override the self-destruct." Weir's voice picked up as she sent out orders and Atlantis moved out of high alert.

Clicking in her code Weir sighed and dialed Earth, she sent a message explaining quickly that it was safe to return. She disengaged the wormhole and was not surprised as it took a little while for an incoming wormhole to engage, figuring that it would take the superiors a little while for the powers that be on the other side to decided that it was safe to give it a try. After about half an hour though Weir became inpatient and was about to help move things back where they belong when a voice stopped her.

"Dr. Weir?" Dr. Jenna Streett called out to their leader. "A ship has detached from the main body. It is setting down on planet P3841L. There is no life on the planet, but there is a Stargate. This gate is actually the closest planet with a Stargate…" Streett's voice trailed off as the Stargate began to activate.

"It's a wormhole from P3841L, blast shield are up." An Australian technician called Richard informed everyone.

* * *

Ending early I'm sorry. But I figured short update is better than none.

Lila Mae: I think that I have decided on keep the title this and making it the Untitled Series type thing. :D

KaylaisEvenstar: thank you for your review :D I'm glad you like the fic so far.

demon92347: I'm glad I have caught your interest and I hope you review more :D

PKBitchGirl1: I agree and I hope to see more out there.

P.S. I know that Private isn't the correct term to use for David Nelson but I messed up and am sticking to Private now. Let's just say he was in the army before being reassigned to the Atlantis mission.


	4. Training

I know I'm calling Sheppard Colonel a lot but that's because I didn't want to have to write out Lieutenant Colonel and I'm sorry for anyone who is military and is annoyed but it is too late in the game for me to change.

Quick thing. '_italics'_ means Sendings over distances, "_italics"_ means Sendings face to face, _**"bold italics"**_ Sendings over all Paths so everyone can Hear _**"bold italics underlined"**_ are under thought, usually not meant to be Sent, only a young Wraith without training Send these.. K' ON WITH THE FIC!

(Author's note: I went through and made minor changes to grammar and sentence structure, nothing big)

* * *

Jayden was rushed into the conference room in the Hive the moment they left Atlantis's atmosphere and the cone was docked inside. The conference room was called such because Coating on the walls were Tuned to help Sendings carry.

'_Jayden are you alright?'_ The Sender was old and familiar.

'_I have not been harmed, as I reported before. I just need to be Surrounded.'_ Jayden replied as he felt the first quivering of Pain coming back.

'_Then come and leave the Longing behind. Then you will feed and all will be well.'_ Mother's Voice washed over Jayden and he felt Love crash onto him.

'_As you command, Mother, so I shall ever obey.' _Opening himself to the Life Source, now within Reach due to the amplifying qualities that all Wraith get from being with one another and the fact that the Source was now so close. Life washed over Jayden as he submerged himself deep into the River inside the Source. Memories of new things that had happened since he had last been able to Reach the Source flooded him mind, he allowed his own experiences to be pulled from him, controlling what was allowed out into the River.

Unable to suck in anymore Jayden was filled with Joy beyond imagining. How could any creature Live without Feeling this? He was forced to withdraw from the Life Source and he felt instantly bereft and felt the way the world around him began to suck the Life out of him the moment he was no longer submerged in it. The feeling faded momentarily as it always did, but it kept Jayden aware that he was once again slowly Draining away.

The moment Surrounding was completed and any Wraith removed themselves from the Life Source they felt the tugging of it being Drained away and Jayden felt the normalcy of the tugging and smiled.

Reviewing all that the Wraith in his clan had left in the River for others to know Jayden was instantly caught up on all the going-ons in the clan. Smiling as he heard that a few weddings had happened; the Tarlex's oldest child had made his first Kill; the eldest of the Trefrai died; frowning he Reviewed something that made him very angry.

"_Who authorized turning Feral of Warren? Or the Feeding of Freedmon to him_?" Jayden hissed his Sending as he strode out of the conference room and into the control room confronting the Head of the Hive ship he was on.

"_The Head of Hive ship 'Turn About' put the report to Mother and she authorized it. Warren was found guilty of crimes in which Feral is the Penalty." _The Head replied.

"_He was a good male!" _Jayden Sent. Rage/Fury/Wrath/Anger mixed together in hues of red were Broadcasted in waves from him in such a way that everyone in the ship Felt it. The Feeling that hid under these Emotions was a swift stab of Betrayal.

"_He was found guilty." _The Sending was overlaid with Broadcastings of Calm.

"_Freedmon? What did he commit? Why was Warren forced to feed upon his Kin?" _The Calm had done nothing and now Sorrow was mixed in with the Anger of the Broadcasting.

"_Freedmon was a traitor to Mother and his lineage showed he always would be. Watch your back Jayden, you are now one of ten surviving of your line."_ The Sending was cut off at the end and Jayden cut of his Broadcasting quickly.

The Fear that went through Jayden at those words was not something he ever wanted anyone to know. Reaching for the one person he trusted he Sent out a plea. '_Mother?`_

'_Yes, Jayden?' _The voice that replied helped Jayden Relax. He searched his mind swiftly for a reason to have called out to her.

'_About the promise I made. About the power crystals I promised to them. The things they call ZPMs?'_

'_Yes?'_

'_When can I make good on it?'_

There was a sigh. _'You do know that I'm not Happy about this Jayden.'_

'_I know and I will accept any punishment you see fit.'_

'_Jayden Jayden Jayden.'_ The laughter was Amused. _'You know that I could never remain Angry with you. You can make good right now if you want. Disassemble yourself and I'll send you to where you can retrieve one. Then you can board a Fighter and drop it off at Yordeu. There is a Stargate there. We'll continue to leave and you can catch up as soon as you complete your promise.'_

'_Thank you Mother.' _Jayden had thought they were done when once again her Voice broke into his head.

'_I am sorry about your brothers Jayden. The Law must hold firm.'_

'_I know Mother, why? Why did they do it?'_ Jayden allowed Mother to See his Emotions, everything. The Betrayal, Sorrow, Anger, Hatred, and Fear. All of it was there.

'_Oh Jayden.'_ Invisible arms wrapped themselves around him, and Jayden stopped in the deserted hallway. _'If I could answer that then the Pain of Loss would have been avoidable. I could have fixed it; I could have made them not Hate me. Don't Hate me Jayden. Please, not ever.'_

Jayden winced and leaned into the wall, just Relishing the Feel of arms around him._ 'I wouldn't hate you. I can't you're my Mother. My family.'_

'_Then why do they Hate me?'_ A sigh sounded in his mind. _'We are wasting time. You need to keep your promise.'_

Jayden felt the connection sever and the arms disappeared. Jayden shrugged his shoulders as if to shrug the weight of his family's betrayal off of his shoulders, the weight of everything seemed to have settled there and he Felt Frustration at not being able to shrug it off. Whatever his brothers had done had to have been severe for Mother not to have found a way around such sever punishments.

Jayden continued down the corridor and to the Disassemblement station. Jayden couldn't help the flinch as he felt every molecule being stripped apart and his vocal cords were taken just as a scream started to emerge. The whole procedure of Disassemblement only takes about .005 seconds, it had been measured many times to tell the Wraith that had to go through it that it doesn't take forever. Unfortunately it seems to take forever and any Wraith who goes through it feels it all.

Jayden's scream turned into a grunt as he was Reassembled on the Mothership. The Soldiers guarding the stations snapped into a salute; hands over their biceps, wrists unbroken, Feeders touching their own arms.

He strode past them and they continued their salute until another male passed by and told them to stand down.

Jayden passed into a sealed room when he Felt he needed to go. The door was locked, he ran his hand over the side of the Coating causing spikes to emerge in his wake; he did not even bother to stop his movements he just reversed it and the spikes embedded in his flesh ripped and poured blood all over the wall and the sensors that soaked it up.

"Access granted." The voice that came over the hallway was quiet and human.

Jayden smiled at his Mother's voice. Then he opened the door before him and eyed the crystals lining the wall… _So many choices_.

* * *

John Sheppard watched as the Stargate's wormhole opened for a few moments. Then just like that, shut off.

"What was that?" Weir asked confused.

Sheppard suddenly smiled. "I think I know what that was. Permission to take a puddle jumper and investigate. I think our friend has left us a little present."

Weir just looked at Sheppard. "No."

"Weir I think that a ZPM is on that planet now. All nice and gift wrapped. If I'm wrong then… I'll never eat chocolate again." Sheppard stated his voice telling Weir that that was the worst thing he could think of.

Weir raised her eye brows. "You won't ever eat chocolate again because you'd be dead.

"We'll keep up our shield and cloak. Weir please." Sheppard looked at her.

Weir sighed. "It is no more crazy then letting Wraith into Atlantis so why not. You are cleared to depart. As soon as the base is once again as full as it normally is."

Sheppard groaned but his protests were swallowed as the Stargate once again powered up. "Incoming wormhole. Blast shields up." The normalcy of that announcement struck a chord in everyone of the crew still here. "Allah it is good to still be here."

Laughter erupted and smiles abound.

"The wormhole is coming from Earth. Receiving a radio transmission. Broadcasting the transmission."

"Atlantis, this is Earth are you still there?" The familiar voice of Colonel Caldwell raised everyone's already elevated spirits.

"Colonel Caldwell this is Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and we are all in one piece. The Wraith are leaving and you are cleared to once again inhabit Atlantis."

"What about the knowledge that we're still here. Doesn't that put Atlantis in an indefensible position?" Caldwell's protest was well founded.

"We are led to believe that the Wraith will keep their promise. As soon as this base is once again occupied…" Sheppard was cut off by Weir.

"And Teyla's people are moved back home."

Sheppard looked at her. "And Teyla's people are returned back home, we will be able to confirm that theory."

"It will all be in the report I presume?" The voice of General Hammond called over the waves.

"Of course, Sir." Sheppard held up his crossed fingers for everyone to see and they all laughed quietly so as to keep the General from knowing.

"Then open your doors, we're coming home." The transmission ended.

"Open the blast doors."

The blast doors winked out of existence and only moments later a team of old Atlantians emerged through the wormhole. Upon seeing no Wraith around they touched their radio transmitters and told everyone the coast was clear. Moments later people poured back into Atlantis.

The chaos that followed was enough to cause several hours worth of clean up. Sheppard sighed as he realized the Weir had planned this out perfectly. The likelihood that anyone would wait 10-12 hours on a planet for someone who might not even show up, and in showing up might bring men to come and kill them, was slim to none.

While organizing the mess of everyone moving back in, John stopped by the technician in charge of watching the monitors and asked whether he had seen the Wraith ship leave yet, the answer no wasn't very convincing since he was also informed that they thought it was a dart and he knew from experience that they can get through a Stargate.

_Stay there Jayden, please. I need to talk to you._ John prayed feverishly. Just then a small child came running up.

"Colonel Sheppard, where do you want us to put the stuff we had to take with us so that it can get back? How are we supposed to figure out which is ours and which isn't?"

"How about we send it all over in another puddle jumper or two, so more people can fit in each puddle jumper. Then we'll have a luggage pick up station."

"Major Sheppard?" Another little kid called. _Lieutenant Colonel_ Sheppard allowed the lapse of rank since the boy was just a child and didn't understand rank changes. "What is luggage?"

"The things you brought with you, the packs and things." Sheppard replied.

"Oh… Um… Which puddle jumper?" The boy asked.

Sheppard signaled for a few soldiers to begin to set up a jumper for that purpose and was thrilled because it seemed as though this would hurry up the whole procedure.

John looked around quickly before moving towards the unused puddle jumpers. Although they were making progress with the Ancient gene therapy few of the occupants of Atlantis actually knew how to fly the jumpers well enough to be of use, though all who could were doing so. With the noticeable exception of Sheppard, who was unable to help load people into the mainland because he was needed at HQ as the military leader.

With the thought that there was nothing more he could do here John carefully snuck into a jumper, wary of Weir. There was another five or six hours left of work to be done but none of it needed his help. Rationalizing the skip ahead in the plan Sheppard booted up the jumper and put the cloak on, carefully maneuvering out of the bay he looked at the Stargate and sighed, hovering over the board, preparing to dial the address to P3841L John almost jumped out of his skin as Ronan sat down next to him. "Jesus! Don't do that!" John glared at him.

"Are we going to P3841L?" Ronan asked his tone direct and to the point.

"Yes." John said, knowing Ronan wouldn't try and stop him.

"Fantastic!" The voice of Beckett drifted in from the back. John looked back there to stare. Beckett, Teyla, a nervous looking Rodney, and an annoyed looking Weir stared back at him.

John froze, embarrassed at being caught in the act. "Am I that predictable?"

"Yes." Their voices mingled as they all informed him he was indeed very predictable.

"How'd you get in here? I didn't see you coming in and I didn't hear you all enter." John asked impressed.

"You were a bit distracted." Was all the reply he got. Knowing there was more to it than that John let it slide since Weir wasn't telling him off for doing it.

"Well… are we going or not?" Weir asked. "I want to meet this Jayden, if that is who we are meeting."

"Yeah. That's who we're meeting." Sheppard stated punching in the address. The Stargate powered up and a wormhole showed clearly. "Here we go."

The puddle jumper emerged from the Stargate in cloak mode and Sheppard scanned looking for life signs. No signs showed but a Wraith dart sat near the entrance looking decidedly conspicuous.

John landed the jumper and waited. The wormhole closed and he still waited, the dart sat there as well, with a sigh John looked back and Weir.

"I'm going out there to look around." Sheppard sat up and headed for the door.

"I'm coming." Ronan said, resting his hand on his gun.

Weir looked at them for a moment. "Be careful."

John smirked and headed out of the ship. Not bothering to try and hide he strode towards the dart. A moment later the dart's hood opened and Jayden climbed out of his ship. He eyed them carefully after reaching the ground.

"I'm surprised you waited." Sheppard said as he got within ten feet and stopped. Ronan waited about a foot behind Sheppard eyeing the land around them looking for an ambush.

Jayden just shrugged. Then he reached up and pulled out a bundle, extending his arm he held out the package and waited. Sheppard walked forward without any hesitation and grabbed the bundle; he felt the very distinct hardness and shape of a ZPM. Surprisingly the second he touched it Jayden let go and took a step back, almost colliding with the dart.

Moments later Rodney came at a dead run and almost collided with John and Ronan who had once again moved forward to stand near Sheppard. Jayden held still as the rest of the team arrived at a more leisurely pace. Rodney didn't wait for the others to arrive but unwrapped the cloth and stared at the ZPM it had concealed. "This is wonderful! This is absolutely wonderful! Look at this, I mean if this has even a third of its power we could…" Suddenly he looked up and blinked at Jayden. "I mean…"

Jayden ignored him and walked towards Beckett who smiled at him. "Are you feeling any better?"

Jayden bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. "I am. Thank you. And are you still feeling the effects of the Holding?"

"No." Beckett eyed the people whom Jayden was obviously ignoring. "Um… Thank you for the ZPM that will help a lot." Jayden just shrugged. "I would love to take another physical exam. If you'd permit, of course."

Jayden hissed in Amusement and felt Ronan pull out his gun. "I doubt that Mother would be too happy if she once again had to come and retrieve me. Besides I have… family matters to attend to."

Beckett looked down and sighed. "Sure there is nothing I can do to make you change your mind? I swear you'll be shown the utmost courtesy. No?" Beckett pleaded as Jayden shook his head.

"You could come to my world." Jayden said and Beckett actually seemed to be considering it.

"No." Weir said and Jayden looked over his shoulder at her, the tilt of his head was as good as raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry Jayden. But I have patients at Atlantis, I can't be going off somewhere." Beckett said regretfully.

"This is good-bye then." Jayden stated.

"I'm afraid so." Beckett looked as though he were disappointed beyond the obvious scientific need.

"Now wait a minute." Colonel Sheppard said annoyed at being ignored. "I wanted to talk to you."

Jayden looked at him and turned away from Beckett. "Yes?"

"I… um… I wanted to say I'm sorry. I got to thinking you were like every other Wraith and I was a bit rash and harsh. I'm sorry I tried to kill you."

Jayden seemed to beam. "You are forgiven Sheppard; one cannot expect cattle to react well to a lion in their midst." He teased.

John recognized the teasing right away and laughed. "I shall have to remember that lions are not only good for their pelts."

"I also am to blame, when I could no longer control my words I reacted poorly; I should have realized it wasn't your fault entirely. You were just trying to help." Jayden nodded his head and looked back at Teyla for a moment, who had up to that moment been quiet. "You are quiet extraordinary…" _"Would you like to train?"_ Jayden Sent to her, awaiting a response.

Like Beckett Teyla seemed to think on it. Very cautiously she Sent, _"__**MY PEOPLE**__**the Atlantians are my people now, but are the Athosians still my people? Can I be both?**__** ARE HERE**__** split in two, trusting each other only because they must, oh my people!**__**; I WILL NOT GO WITH YOU.**__**Not to a Wraith planet, I will not be tricked, there is something wrong in me, am I a monster, a freak?**__"_

Jayden almost winced. The wide Sending Teyla sent was much too loud for this distance. He also chose to ignore the under thoughts she inadvertently revealed. "_Would you be willing to meet with me secretly every once and a while for training? I will give you the address for a planet, if you swear to tell no one where and why you are going there."_

"_**WHAT ARE THE COORDINATES?**__** Can I really trust a Wraith?**__**"**_

Jayden Sent the address so that the pictures would be in her memory. _"Tell the people there that you are looking for Jayden, they will send for me."_

It only took a second for the exchange to take place and no one seemed to notice what had happened. Jayden looked towards where Ronan stood looking menacingly at the Wraith, almost no one.

"Well." Rodney spoke up looking around, an impatient expression plastered on his face. "Are we going back or not? We need to test this to see if it has any juice it in."

* * *

The Atlantis team looked at Jayden, who smirked at them. "I already know your address. I will not tell you mine."

Weir nodded after a second and the team started to trek towards the still cloaked jumper. Beckett held back for a moment and looked at Jayden. The team got about ten meters away before anyone noticed the doctor missing. As Ronan turned to look for Carson, worried that he had decided to leave with Jayden anyways, he spotted him in a hug with the Wraith.

Beckett pulled back, said something to the leech, who stood stunned, and then Beckett walked towards him. Ronan waited till he got close enough to hear him without the others listening too. "What was that about?"

"Nothing much. It just suddenly seemed the right thing to do." Beckett said looking uncomfortable for a moment. "He did spare my life, and most of what happened at the end was my fault, for giving him the drug and all." Beckett shrugged again.

Ronan just looked at him and kept walking. The idea of getting that close to a Wraith, any Wraith, was enough to make him clench his jaws to keep the bile in. His stomach tightened and rolled.

The ride back was short and everyone was once again dispersed to do their various tasks. Sheppard, Weir, Beckett, and Teyla went back to leading the people unloading in their specific areas of expertise. Rodney snatched Zelenka and they began to ooh and ahh over the ZPM and the readings it gave out.

"ASTONDING!" Mackay exclaimed making the girl who was walking behind him jump and drop what she was carrying. "Look, look at this!" He exclaimed grabbing the girl. He showed her something she couldn't make out but he didn't seem to mind. He began to talk at her, using her as a sounding board for his joy. Zelenka did the same thing, repeating what Rodney was saying and expounding as well.

Ronan waited until everyone seemed busy and disappeared into the exercise room. He spent the next four days in the exercise room attached to his own room to avoid the others. Everyone on base seemed busy and Sheppard went on several missions, Ronan opted out of them, needing a bit of time to try and relax, hoping he could keep down something.

* * *

**Two Months Later**

Teyla took a deep breath as she stepped away from the gate. She peered about. This particular planet hadn't been on any of the maps and Teyla had the suspicion that the Wraith had moved the gate to this planet. A little girl that had apparently been playing nearby stood looking at Teyla, no fear showed on her face and she wandered over.

The girl reached Teyla and held out her hand.

Teyla felt a smile overcome her face. "Hello."

The girl shook her hand as it hung in the air as though to bring it to Teyla's attention and Teyla reached over and grabbed it. The solemn expression on the little girl's face made Teyla want to laugh and the girl tugged at Teyla's hand leading her towards a path. Teyla followed behind and with about ten minutes of walking they emerged suddenly upon a village.

People turned and looked at Teyla, frowns on their faces, no one spoke. Teyla looked around for someone in charge and a small man with a crooked back stepped forward.

"I am Augustus, the Wiseling. Is there something we can do for you?" The man cocked his eye-brow at her. "We share our knowledge freely."

Teyla spoke cautiously, looking at the not hostile, but not quite friendly, faces around her. "I am Teyla Ammagon, I search for the one called Jayden."

The people around her all acted as though she had lifted some terrible burden, they all smiled. "JAYDEN!" The little girl next to Teyla screeched.

The villagers began to move into their own homes, or back to whatever duties they had been previously at. The little girl actually leaned her head all the way back, closed her eyes, and screamed this time. "JAYDEN!"

"Why are you yelling? I am right here." Jayden spoke from behind them both.

Teyla spun and dropped into a crouch while the little girl looked over her shoulder and smiled. Jayden eyed Teyla for a moment. "I thought you were not coming."

"I was able to get away." Teyla said with a nod. "Though I was not expecting you to be here; I thought they would have to send for you."

"They will most of the time, and I may not be able to come depending on when they try and contact me. I cannot drop everything for when you have the time." Jayden said, raising his eyebrow at her. The little girl looked at Jayden and tugged at his arm.

Jayden looked down at her and sighed. Pulling her up he balanced her on a hip like any human might have done to their children. "Follow me. We will begin our work away from the village; it is easier to concentrate at first with no distractions."

Walking out of the village, down a path slightly off to the right of the one Teyla arrived on, Jayden, the little girl, and Teyla emerged into a clearing, out of hearing from the village.

The little girl jumped from Jayden's arms and claimed the only rock worth sitting on. Jayden sighed and looked around for another place to sit before plopping across from the girl.

"This is Mia. She will be helping with your lessons."

Teyla eyed Mia and then Jayden before sitting, a little to the right of Jayden and facing Mia.

"What do I do?" Teyla asked; her voice was steady when she wanted to vibrate with tension. Part of her screamed what she was doing was wrong, Wraithlike, another was screaming she was wrong because she was lying to her friends, saying she wanted to visit old acquaintances. The last part, the part that wasn't screaming, but was calm and rational, said she needed to do this to help combat the Wraith.

"You must decide what you wish to learn. Do you wish to keep the Wraith Out? Learn to Speak to them? Listen without detection? Broadcast? Send? Feel?" Jayden seemed to run out of words. A sigh exploded out of his chest. "The human means of speech is so… limited." Jayden's eyes seemed to light up. "I can also teach you to read and write Simple… What you call Wraith."

Teyla frowned at him. "I wish to learn it all. Especially… Simple, but why are you doing this? Why teach me?"

"What happened to you, what happened to your ancestors, is inexcusable. I merely wish to allow you to be able to use your skills. To open your eyes." Jayden frowned and spread his hands.

"Then teach me." Teyla said.

Jayden pulled out some kind of flat object and a stick. "I will write out simple things, and write under them in English. You will receive this tablet once the lesson is over, if you do well. I will teach you how to use it." With that Jayden wrote for a few minutes on the tablet while Mia and Teyla watched. Jayden set down the tablet and pen and turned to Teyla.

"Your first lesson will be Broadcasting. Or better yet how to stop Broadcasting. Now I want you to…"

Teyla interrupted somewhat sheepishly. "I do not know what Broadcasting is."

"Broadcasting is when you… Broadcast your Emotions. Right now you are Feeling Guilt, Confusion, and Determination. Now Disbelief as well. Which is remarkable in a human, since most can't Feel at all."

"We feel. We may be a bit callous at times but humans can feel." Teyla said in Outrage.

"Human's feel but they don't Feel." This time he made sure she heard the capital letter. "Wraith Feel, it is just that way, human's emotions are fuzzy feeling. I will explain at a later date. Now I want you to picture a giant bubble all the way around you." Jayden sighed instantly. "Much better. Now that is usually hard to maintain so I suggest making it smaller and encasing it around your 'heart'. This allows no one else to feel what it is you do."

Teyla frowned as sweat began to bead on her forehead. The bubble she imagined shuddered and exploded, Jayden seemed to actually stiffen for a moment. "I cannot hold it."

"It takes time to hold in the Emotions. Try again."

It was several hours later before Teyla admitted defeat, it was now too dark to see one another and her stomach informed her that she had missed her meals.

Jayden seemed to recognize that she could not go on much longer because he called for the end of the session. Teyla stood and found her body stiff and unresponsive at first.

"The best you managed was thirty minutes, but that is much better than I expected for our first lesson. Here is the tablet. Press you finger here." Jayden pointed to a small indent, barely seeable. Teyla carefully pressed her finger down and the tablet lit to life. Its screen showed several different Wraith glyphs and written in neat hand writing under them were 'name', 'mine', 'yours', 'greetings', and 'farewell'. "Practice recognizing the glyphs and writing them. That is enough for today."

Mia slept peacefully on the flat rock, her hand tucked under her chin. Jayden looked at her and sighed in exasperation. He reached down, and to Teyla's amazement, picked up the girl and headed back towards town. They were approaching the town when they heard the voice of Augustus saying clearly. "I know not where Teyla has gone. I am sorry. We offer our knowledge..."

Sheppard's voice spoke over the man in the end. "I know she is here, this is where she dialed."

Teyla looked back at where Jayden had stopped. _"Get rid of him, do not let him know of me or I will not come back."_ His voice hissed in her mind.

Teyla looked back at him, and her hand drifted to the tablet in her sack. She needed to do this.

Teyla walked into the village and up to Sheppard who was looking the other direction. "Have I been gone that long?"

John spun a look of relief on his face. "You've been gone almost ten hours. We were getting worried about you."

"We?" Teyla asked her eyebrow raised.

"I was worried to." Rodney said as he emerged from a house.

Teyla raised the other eyebrow. "Well then it is time for me to leave, I must admit I am tired."

John waved her ahead and they all headed back to the Stargate.

* * *

It took another two months before Teyla could hold on to the 'bubble'. Now she barely thought about it, another week of not once dropping the bubble and Teyla had memorized the writings as well.

Teyla went back to the village and once again had to introduce herself to Augustus.

"I am Augustus, the Wiseling. Is there something we can do for you?" The same man as before looked at her as though he didn't know her. "We share our knowledge freely."

Teyla looked at Augustus and frowned, perhaps this was some ritual. "I am Teyla Ammagon, I search for the one called Jayden." Augustus smiled at her.

"Jayden is not here, it will be another week before he needs to feed again, he will return then." Augustus shrugged. "But we can send for him." Augustus gestured to Mia who darted off towards the Stargate, to get Jayden supposedly, before Teyla could recover.

"Did you say feed?" A part of Teyla knew he must feed, but every other part of her screamed that Jayden couldn't, that he wasn't like the other Wraith. She held the bubble by a thread.

It was an hour before Mia and Jayden arrived. In that time Teyla talked to others in the village about things all villagers talked about. Crops, trade, children, marriages and expectant mothers.

"You have mastered the shield. Have you not?" Jayden said. "Come with me. We will move to the next lesson. If you are ready."

Mia hopped forward and skipped to their meeting place. She once again claimed the rock and Jayden settled down to his spot as well. Teyla paused for a moment before sitting in the spot she sat in last.

"First thing. Let me see the blueberry." His gesture indicated he meant the tablet in her bag. She handed it over after a second. He pressed a button and the screen cleared completely. "I want you to write out the words as I say them. Write them in Simple. Use the pen."

Teyla grabbed the pen and the 'blueberry' and wrote as Jayden spoke the words. He used the English word for each word, explaining that the Wraith didn't have a spoken language, that they used Sendings. He looked at the blueberry and did a sort of hiss. "You got them all correct, but I expected as much since you've had two months to study. Impressive on the mental side but this time I'll give you more words." He took a few moments and wrote another series of symbols.

"Today I'm going to teach you how to feel Broadcastings. I'm assuming that you can't because you are not Wraith. But with training you should be able to pick and choose what you Feel from others."

"Can Wraith not do that?" Teyla asked, something in Jayden's voice said that he Envied her.

"No. Now I want you to focus on Mia. Mia you don't have to do anything. Now Teyla focus on Mia, human's can't Shield the way Wraith can. Feeling a Broadcast is the same as Feeling it yourself, but there is no reason for it. Being Angry suddenly or Board, then it going away. And most of the time there are colors in association with a Broadcasting, colors that swirl just on the edge of sight. Wraith can Broadcast Feelings that aren't really Emotions such as Submission, Dominance, Learning. These are all lessons for another date." Jayden's voice suddenly took a hypnotic tone. "Feel her, block out everything but the girl in front of you. What is she feeling Teyla? Concentrate." _"What is she feeling?"_

Teyla relaxed her mind for a moment and snapped it to attention to focus on Mia. She was so concentrated she didn't even Sense Jayden slipping into her mind.

* * *

Ronan walked through the Stargate, side by side with John. He and John had their guns up and they moved into a search pattern. "Okay Ronan." John whispered as they made it to the line of trees with no sign of hostiles. "We have a team member here, we aren't sure it's a capture, they've missed their check in yes but they've been known to do so every once and a while. We don't know how many hostiles and civilians there are. So guard your shots, make sure you know who is a foe and who's just a poor villager. Remember there may not be any hostiles."

Ronan nodded. His blood pumping as they once again began to creep through the under growth. They followed a path that led away from the Stargate, not walking on the path but keeping it in sight.

Soon they approached a village, Sheppard signaled a halt and Ronan moved to his side, crouching so that Sheppard could talk almost right in his ear. John's breath sent tingles racing through Ronan's system and they pooled into his belly, for a change the feeling there was pleasant not painful.

"I'm going to head into the village, watch my back. Remember they may not be bad guys." John backed off a little so that it would seem like he had been walking down the path when he arrived in the village.

Ronan watched Sheppard's back as he entered the village, his lithe but muscular form moving with grace, a proud strut in his walk saying he could handle things himself. He approached the man who seemed to be the head of the small village who talked with him for a moment. The man began to shake his head and move his hands in a negating fashion; obviously he was telling John he didn't know who he was talking about.

The colonel wouldn't be dissuaded as he seemed to insist that he did know. Ronan barely saw the movement in time, a shifting and one of the women had brought a gun up and shot Sheppard. The shot a red spray that exploded over his shoulder. He dropped with a pained grimace; rolling he made a beeline for the trees and safety as some of the people screamed and darted away and others drew weapons and shot at John.

Ronan returned fire and people began to look for shelter. Making his way carefully to Sheppard he crouched behind a large overturned tree where his leader had dragged himself to.

He reached for Sheppard's arm but it was pushed away by the colonel's good arm. "Leave it let's go. We still need to…" What he was about to say was cut off as a man jumped over the log, a knife in his hand.

Ronan darted forward from his crouched position and tackled the man, wrestling the knife away he jumped back as another gun blast ricocheted near his head, the man crumpled to the ground as Sheppard fired on him. They zigzagged to avoid gunfire as they ran from the village. A little over an hour later and the villagers had lost Ronan and John's trail. They doubled back while the hunters tried to figure out their trail and went right back into the village, carefully they scanned everything before moving into the open, in case the villagers had someone guarding the settlement.

Pulling out a life sensor Sheppard used it to try and figure out where everyone was. Three dots off a little farther from the village attracted his attention and he crept that way. Ronan trailed behind, watching carefully. Sometimes it surprised the ex-specialist that gun fire never set off his stomach, fighting didn't either, but let him even think about the Wraith and it clenched and threatened to betray him.

As they emerged to a small building built in the woods they eased around different sides of the small shack. Peering through the windows, Ronan saw the white hair he had been dreading and fought his stomach and his rage. His head told him to wait, his heart told him to kill the bastard, and his body wanted to run. Sheppard peered through the opposite window and spotted Ronan. He motioned he wanted Ronan to prepare and he disappeared around the edge. Ten seconds later Sheppard kicked down the door and began to fire. Ronan plunged through the glass. They both fired upon the Wraith.

It took the combination of both of their guns to bring him down. Too late Ronan remembered the second dot, spinning in time to see John fall, his face tensing in pain and then relaxing right before he hit the ground, his back smoking from the energy blast. Ronan tried to bring up his gun but the other person was too fast and pain erupted in his middle, traveling to his brain as though he were hit with lightning. Nerves sizzled and shriveled as the shock ripped through him, He tried again to bring up his gun as his knees hit the floor and his vision began to clear a little.

Barely getting a shot off proved futile as the shot went wide and almost hit Rodney, who was tied and staring in horror. Ronan had enough time to wish Teyla were with them before another shot sizzled through him, his brain screamed as the shot ripped through his chest and darkness claimed him.

* * *

Beckett made his rounds and checked in on all his patients. None of the wounds were serious, though today they had lost several good men on a mission gone wrong.

Unable to stop himself Beckett's mind turned to the Wraith bodies, or lack thereof. So far they hadn't been able to return with many. Most of the team members who were fortunate to kill one of the buggers usually had to leave before he could collect the body, or they exploded in a self destruct kind of mechanism.

Thinking back to the other bodies he wondered idly whether he would ever get the opportunity to speak with Jayden again. The way the organs in the other bodies were arranged seemed to work even though they shouldn't. Carefully he walked into a screened off area and used a computer to begin looking at the X-ray/MRI type scan he used. The esophagus type tube that led from the mouth into something that seemed to be the intestines. After that it led into a bag that must function as the stomach. That seemed to be the end of their oral digestive track. All the organs in it were incredibly small.

The hands seem to be something all together different. There was nothing to reveal that they did anything, veins and arteries were more numerous in that area than anywhere else as far as the Atlantis team knew. It seemed as though whatever they suck from humans dumped itself straight into their blood stream.

In Jayden's body the opposite must be true. The veins and arteries were still there but the digestive track looked a bit more human. The stomach still ended and went nowhere, but everything was bigger.

Both of the types of Wraith seemed to be able to eat if ineffectually. The real stumper was that Jayden's heart, lungs, liver and such seem to be disconnected to anything, and in strange places. His lungs rested on their sides towards his abdomen and Beckett wondered what it was he had been hearing when he listened to Jayden's chest during the brief and interrupted physical. Everything was shaped oddly but Beckett thought he knew what most of them did.

But there was a strange organ in Jayden's body. Something that hovered somewhere in the vicinity of his heart, seemingly connected the organ that functioned as his heart. Beckett had no idea what this thing did and no one else seemed to know either.

* * *

I promised someone I'd update and I'm keeping that promise. Here's the update. I don't have any more but I have tons of ideas. So if updates are slow in coming I'm SORRY!

The other stories haven't been update in a lot longer. I have to run to the library to get this updated!


	5. Problems

Disclaimer – I own nothing! Well I own Jayden and most of the Wraith, but not the concept of the Wraith…. Umm you know what I mean.

Legend:

'_italics'_ = Sendings over distances

"_italics"_ = Sendings face to face

"_**bold italics"**_ = Sendings over all Paths so everyone can Hear

"_**bold italics underlined**__**"**_ = under thought, usually not meant to be Sent, only a young Wraith would Send this

* * *

Jayden eased in Teyla's mind and waited. Teyla was totally concentrated on the task before her and obviously hadn't noticed his stealthy invasion. He watched as she seemed to try and Sense what Mia was Feeling, but she went about it all wrong, not knowing how to properly focus or even what she was looking for, she was a total mess.

He withdrew and spoke, breaking her concentration. "No, no, no. That's not how to do it! Your focus is all over the place. Give me a second." Jayden did not understand how this could be so hard for Teyla. It was obvious that she Felt instinctively, because she was good at Reading people. He turned the question around and around in his head before an idea came to him. "Alright. How about you don't close your eyes? Look at Mia and try and Feel her. Normally this would be backwards because seeing something could distract you, but I think it will help. Look at her, then try and Feel what she's Feeling."

Teyla frowned at Jayden before turning to Mia. "It is obvious that she is bored and annoyed."

"Yes but can you Feel that? Or are you just going from her body posture?" Jayden asked.

"I don't know." Teyla said before looking at Mia harder as though she could see what the other was Feeling.

"I think it's a mixture of both, now that you know what you are looking for, close your eyes and try and Feel what Mia is Feeling," Jayden reiterated, watching as once again Teyla focused on Mia, her eyes closed and a concentrated look on her face.

Then it was as though a light bulb went off. "I can Feel her!" Teyla's eyes shot open and she whirled to face her Wraith teacher. "It's so easy! How did I not get it before?"

Jayden smiled, careful to keep his lips closed because he knew how his teeth frightened some humans. "Once you get it it's very simple. Now I want you to practice every day, work in crowded areas first, then try and do it when you can't see the person you're trying to Feel."

Teyla stood and stretched a moment as Jayden picked up the blueberry. He handed it to her and walked her to the gate. For a few moments it was peaceful, Mia skipping alongside the human and Wraith. But the peculiar way Augustus had acted when Teyla had first arrived, and his talk of Feeding kept swirling around and around in her head.

Finally she could take it no longer and she found herself asking Jayden, "Why didn't Augustus remember me when I came back here?"

"He's a wiseling." Jayden shrugged as though that explained it all.

"What is a wiseling?" Teyla pressed, confused and concerned.

"A wiseling is a human with extraordinary brain power, he, or she, can absorb massive amounts of information. Unfortunately most wiselings die at a very young age because their mind becomes over loaded with all the minute details of life. If a wiseling is discovered before this happens a Wraith can use this to their advantage. Basically we strip them of everything but the most basic of experiences so that they don't overload." Jayden saw Teyla's frown and hastened to explain. "Without this 'cleaning' a wiseling will go into seizures, grow up before their time, and lead short horrible lives. We remove everything horrible and leave them with a normal life. That is why I come here so often, when Mother finds a wiseling she turns him or her over to a Wraith who is then in charge of coming and removing all excess information.

"I am in charge of Augustus; I remove things like what he ate for dinner ten years ago, or what a dead man's favorite color was, etc. Things that no longer have any use to him and I leave him with birthdays, the look of sunlight on a beautiful leaf, his name, villagers name's etc in return. I provide a valuable service." Jayden ended with a shrug.

Teyla absorbed with for a moment. "What do you do with his memories?"

"I dump them in the River, where all information that isn't really needed at the moment, but could possibly be useful in the future is stored."

"Was I not considered important enough to remember?" Teyla asked more curious then offended.

"I allow Augustus some control over what he remembers, or doesn't remember in some cases; but in the end I have control. I chose to remove you because if Augustus were to ever be questioned about Atlantis by a rival clan, then he knows nothing. It is for his safety, as well as yours and mine." They reached the Stargate and Teyla found herself asking one last question, one she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to.

"How do you remove his memories?"

Jayden looked at her, understanding in his eyes. "I Feed from him." Without another word he walked away, Mia skipping and holding his hand right alongside him.

Teyla stood there long after they were gone, thinking. Finally she realized that she should be returning to Atlantis before her team started to miss her and came looking for her again.

* * *

Ronan blinked as he returned to consciousness, staring at his ceiling he tried to remember what had happened. Memory returned and he groaned. _Shot down on a stupid training exercise. I must be losing my edge._

He slid out of bed and padded across his room and into the hallway, grabbing a relatively clean shirt on the way out. Ronan stalked through the halls and no one bothered him.

Sheppard's room was close by and Ronan knew the way blind folded. The door slid open for him easily and he approached the bed where his leader lay. Sheppard obviously hadn't woken sense he mission because he still had paint all over his shoulder and side where he had been 'shot'.

Ronan, satisfied his leader was taken care of, went in search of the 'hostage'. Rodney wasn't in his room and Ronan began to do a sweep of his most likely hiding spots. His lab was deserted, as well as Zelenka's. Ronan was slightly surprised because since the ZPM had been taken from the Wraith Rodney spent more time in his lab than anywhere else, running endless tests.

Ronan searched the kitchen, Dr. Brown's lab and room, and several other places. Eventually Ronan found Rodney in the jumper bay, much to his surprise. Ronan looked at the scene before him before sneaking off, more than willing to leave Rodney in peace to do… well Dr. Brown. With one more member of his team to check in on Ronan checked first to see if she had made it back from her trip off planet. Finding that she had returned a few hours ago he searched her room.

Ronan must have been moving more silently then he thought, or Teyla was overly distracted because she didn't look up from what she was doing. Her back was to him and in her hand she held some sort of tablet. Ronan was about to announce his presence but something stopped him, he moved closer to see what she was doing and his eyes widened, stomach clenching. Before her on a small tablet was Wraith glyphs, Teyla was copying them down very carefully over and over again.

Fighting back the nausea Ronan's voice was a bit rougher then he intended when he finally spoke. "What are you doing?"

Teyla jumped, a paper fluttering off the table and towards him, like a missile. Ronan fought back the urge to jump away from it. "Ronan, you startled me. What can I help you with?"

"What is this?" Ronan gestured towards the offending piece of paper and the damning writing on it.

"I am learning how to read S… Wraith." Teyla said as she stood to face Ronan. Her manner was defensive and she didn't lower herself to pick up the papers, instinctively realizing that if she did she would be giving up an advantage.

"How?" Ronan knew his voice was condemning, but damn it he didn't like this new turn of events.

Teyla obviously considered being obstinate, but decided against it. "You must tell no one of this."

Ronan crossed his arms and looked at her. Teyla sighed in frustration. "I have been meeting with Jayden off world and he has been teaching me to read and write Wraith as well as make some sense of the powers the Wraith left me with."

Ronan frowned for a second before processing everything appropriately. "You are lying to your team mates so that you could meet with a Wraith who may or may not be lying to you, in the off chance he was telling the truth? Putting yourself and this base in jeopardy."

"No more jeopardy then it was already in. I know that Jayden is telling the truth because I can Feel it." Teyla said looking at Ronan. "He told me that if I told you, or anyone, that we were meeting then he would stop coming. Any possible advantage we can gain from these meetings is worth a few untruths. Ronan you must tell no one of this! Please."

Ronan looked at Teyla, and tried for her sake to see a way of keeping this from Sheppard. "Why is everyone so willing to trust the Wraith? Have you forgotten that our whole mission is to kill the Wraith? That the very nature of the Wraith is to kill and enslave us." Ronan stopped, not because he ran out of things to say but because his stomach was twisting and heaving. He gagged and was grateful that there was nothing but blood in his stomach, at least nutrition wasn't lost.

Teyla stepped forward a look of concern on her face. Ronan tried to tell Teyla he was fine but another set of gags forced him to his knees. Teyla was out of the room and calling for help before he could ask her to stop. People came in in moments, they manhandled him into the infirmary before he could get his heaving stomach under control.

Teyla, Sheppard, Beckett, McKay and a few nurses all cluttered around him in worry. "Do you think it has something to do with the training exercise we ran?" Sheppard asked worried.

"No." Beckett said frowning at Ronan. "Ronan, you okay? Can you tell me what happened?"

"It's nothing." Ronan growled, trying to get out from under everyone's gaze.

"Ronan and I were talking, and then he started to get sick." Teyla spoke up; looking more concerned than anyone else.

"What were you talking about?" Beckett asked as he listened to Ronan's chest as he breathed harshly.

"The Wraith." Despite her need to keep her meetings with Jayden secret her first priority was her team.

Ronan instantly gagged. No one missed the significance, Sheppard frowned as they all looked and drew the same conclusion. "I think his reaction is to the life-sucking Wraith that hunted him." Sheppard was instantly 'rewarded' with Ronan once again doubling over and a thin amount of blood dribbled from his mouth.

"Ronan, how long have you been experiencing abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite?" Beckett asked their weak runner.

"A while, since I was a runner." Ronan said, the fight going out of him.

"And you are just now informing me of this? You could have had a perforation! You could have died! Not to mention killing others, sense I'm assuming you've been getting weaker?" Beckett fumed.

The thought of dying hadn't fazed Ronan, but the idea of letting his team down made him ashamed. "Can you fix it?"

"Aye. But you'll need surgery and you'll be off duty for at least a month." Ronan opened his mouth to object but Beckett had no sympathy for him. "What if you were trapped by the Wraith because you were so weak?"

Ronan gagged again, but kept everything that was left down, and shot Beckett a warning look. "Just patch me up and I'll tell you when I'm ready for work again."

* * *

Jayden returned from the planet where he had met with Teyla and walked among his brethren. Despite how they all didn't trust him, and generally treated him as though he were a vicious dog allowed among them, he was still Comforted by their closeness.

Wandering the Mothership had its share of distractions but Jayden had mission. Despite being home for a little over two months he had yet to have the opportunity to do what he knew he needed to, which is why he found himself moving to one of the more secluded parts of the ship. The ship was about the size of a planet and there were beams all over it to allow the occupants to cover distances that would take months to walk. He made his way to the closest one and stepped in, when he emerged close to the center of the ship he then sought out a pod.

Pods shot about the ship on tracts that would only go to the most sensitive areas, because of the very nature of his errand Jayden was forced to use one. Jayden knew that his visit would be recorded and there was no way of keeping it secret, and he winced because it would draw unneeded tension to fall on Mothers shoulders, but there was no way around it. Even if he kept his actual visit from the River, the Wraith in charge of watching over the pods would see no reason to keep its occurrence secret, they might even enjoy sharing the information knowing it would cause Jayden trouble.

The pod ended its plummet at the very center of the Mothership, where Ferals were all kept. Jayden walked through the hallways looking at the webbed cages and the snarling Wraith behind them. Some of the Wraith were males, others soldiers, but all of them were thin and mostly naked. Jayden ignored their Pain and Fear and did his best to block it out. He Envied Teyla's ability to choose who she Felt because every other Wraith had to deal with all emotions Broadcasted at them, there was no defense for them.

Jayden found himself sweating and twitching at every snarl as the Feral's Feelings began to over stimulate him. The cages were located in the very center of the ship, with a thick padding between it and the inhabited parts of the ship for that very reason. He kept walking until he reached a cage in the middle.

His brother Warren stood there, sides heaving as he snarled at the intruder into 'his' territory. Jayden looked at his brother and fought down his Greif. "Oh Warren, why'd you do it?"

His brother stopped his snarling for a moment and looked curiously at him, some memory tugging at him. Jayden felt a tear sting his eye and the sudden thought of what the humans of Atlantis would think knowing Wraith cry made him laugh, almost hysterical in his Pain.

Jayden ignored all the warnings he had received about going near Ferals and crossed to his brother. He reached the cage door just as his brother did and Jayden grasped his brother, he had just enough time to realize what a bad idea this was when his brother latched on to him and started to Feed from him.

Jayden fought the sucking of his own life and pulled himself from his brother, falling down. Blood oozed from Feeding marks down his side and Jayden paused a moment. He would later say he wasn't thinking properly, but really he was just truly Enraged. He Broadcasted his Rage for all of the Ferals to Feel and they cowered in their cages, all of them went silent and seemed to try and Shield their feelings to avoid attracting the attention of whatever powerful beast was so Enraged.

Jayden didn't feel the need to stop his Broadcasting as he stood and examined the damage his brother had done to him. Feeding marks were on located right below his ribs and oozed a small amount of blood, Warren had drained over half of Jayden's Life Force allocation and Jayden fought the urge to replenish immediately.

His brother had drained him… his brother had Fed from him. As he did whenever he was worried or out of his depth he reached for Mother, her comfortable presence enveloped him and he allowed his Rage to slip away. '_Mother, why did this happen? Can he be saved?'_

'_Jayden, you know he cannot, or even if he could I would not pardon him.' _Mother's voice was a comfort, if not her words.

Jayden's hands clenched as he looked at his brother, still tired but looking more Alive since his Feeding. _'He is my brother.'_

'_And my son. But he has betrayed us.' _Mother allowed Jayden to Feel her Sorrow at Warren's betrayal.

'_As I one day will?' _Jayden cried at his Mother, Pain making him feel Alone.

'_No! I know you would not betray me! If ever there were a Wraith I trusted more I know not of them. You are my Son, I traversed the Galaxy to rescue you, I put up with the Meddelers to free you. I held up your bargain and never once did you ever act in anyway, in your captivity or after, that reflected poorly on me or my decision to save you.' _Mother was passionate in her Sending, but Jayden was unconvinced.

'_Perhaps it is my destiny to betray you, all my kin has, and maybe it's in my genes. My blood. My Life Force.' _

'_How could it be in your Life Force? I am your Life Force. I trust you above all others.' _Jayden felt his Fears begin to lessen in the face of Mother's absolute Trust. She must have Sensed it as well because the next thing she said was off topic. _'I know what you need. You need to get laid.' _

Jayden burst out laughing at her serious tone. _'I'm serious. I'm sure that there is some male out there who's willing to go for a romp.' _Jayden must have let something slip because Mother's next words were right on. _'What about that human? Ronan Dex?'_

* * *

Okay, I had to update for you guys, ya'll deserved it! But I'm in college now and I'll try to update every once and a while (more frequently then I have in the past at least).


	6. Visitors

I love all of you who have stayed with me through all the years of no updates! I promise I have good reasons but they don't really matter. What does matter is the loyalty you have all shown me *tears up* I LOVE YOU!

Todd is Awesome : *face palm* *goes through and corrects all errors in all of the chapters* let me know if you see any more

Storylover158: I'm glad you like it! There will be many different pairings in this fic, some traditional and some not so much. I hope you enjoy!

The Phoenix Falls: You were one of the most prompting of all my reviews. You were prodding without being mean and I really appreciate that!

CoolKat Avalon: Your review did make me so 'oh yeah' but my life was so hectic I didn't have time to do any writing. But I did pull of the drafts for all my future ideas for this story I wrote after seeing your review. It just took me another two years to actually make them into a story format.

Darkroge: this is what happens so far :-D

Thank you for your encouraging non angry reviews! I do read them, and every time I see a new one pop up it pokes me to write this fic! I uncovered my DVD set in my DVD boxes as I unpacked them from yet another move and I realized…. I LOVE THIS SHOW! Than the plot bunnies ambushed me and I was like O_O I have sometime between work (I have three jobs) and school (I'm a senior in college with a full load) I CAN WRITE THIS! Who needs sleep anyways?

So you've waited long enough! ON WITH THE FIC!

Weir sat in Stargate command looking at the reports from all of her teams, but she wasn't truly looking at them, instead she sat and thought of all of the things that were going on in Atlantis.

Ronan was just coming out of surgery where Carson had finally gotten the ulcers in his stomach to close. It was obvious that he had been suffering for years and the fact that he felt he had to hide it from everyone was making everyone on base more alert to the people around them, everyone was looking at their friends and coworkers and trying to figure out if they were hiding something. John was sitting in the recovery room, watching over Ronan as the anesthesia wore off.

Rodney was showing how much he cared by trying to get more of the Atlantian medical equipment working with their new ZPM. Teyla seemed the most remote, as she had before the incident with Ronan.

Weir suddenly decided she needed to talk to Teyla to see how she was faring with everything, as she stood up her office door opened to reveal the very woman she was on her way to see. "Teyla. I was just going to look for you. How are you doing?"

Teyla seemed to hesitate as she entered before smiling uncomfortably at the Atlantian leader. "I honestly do not know. I am very unsettled."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Weir asked anxiously.

"I do not think so." Teyla answered in sympathy. "Is there anything I can do for you? I am feeling very restless."

"Well I am ordering psych evals for every Stargate team. I want everyone checked out before we do anymore missions." Weir found herself searching for stress lines in Teyla's face and found them with ease. _How did I not notice how much strain everyone has been under?_

With Weir's pronouncement that there would be no more traveling through the Stargate Teyla's stress lines deepened for a moment. "I am sorry Dr. Weir but I told my friend on Aeria that I would visit them again soon, is there any way that I could be allowed to go through the Stargate to visit with them again?"

It took Weir a moment to place the name of the planet that Teyla had visited recently and she frowned. "I am sorry Teyla I cannot, if I make an exception for you then everyone will want to go off world. I will allow you to visit them as soon as everyone is cleared for Stargate travel."

Teyla swallowed her protest and forced a smile on her face. "I understand Dr. Weir; I will go and put my name on the schedule, perhaps seeing people signing up will encourage others not to drag their feet."

Teyla left as soon as she could; walking at a sedate pace when she really wanted to run. Her stomach was knotted in anxiety as she fought to come up with a solution to her problem. She doubted that Ronan would tell anyone she was secretly meeting with Jayden, but Ronan had an unreasoning hatred for the Wraith that Teyla realized she had underestimated. In the state he was in now it is possible that he would tell Sheppard everything and then Jayden would stop meeting her to work on her abilities. Teyla went back to her room and just stood there thinking when she realized that there was still blood from Ronan's episode on her floor and that her personal items were all disturbed from the medical personnel coming through to remove him.

With something to do Teyla set about cleaning up the mess in her room, once that was done she hid the blueberry tablet with the Wraith symbols on them and headed to the training room, a plan to burn off some of her extra energy firmly in her mind.

Jayden fought to control his Emotions as his Mother brought forth the one human he had decided not to think about. But with her words he remembered the human he had met so briefly four months ago.

The dreadlocks cascading down his back in a way that some Wraith had, but a rich collage of black, brown and mahogany that was nonexistent amongst his Wraith brethren; the fire of Life that seemed to emanate out of him in waves that Jayden could Taste. The human was tall, muscular and exquisite. '_He hates all Wraith, Mother. Hates with such Passion that he is killing himself.'_

'_Ah, but such Passion is worth getting over a little obstacle isn't it?' _Mother's voice teased in the back of Jayden's mind, Sending him images of Ronan as he and others had seen him.

Jayden groaned and found himself laughing at his Mother's prodding, seeing the humor she knew he would. Finally in Control of himself he Blocked his emotions from all of the Ferals around him, including his lost brother, and headed to the pod waiting to take him back.

Jayden could Feel his Mother thinking, and he waited for her thoughts to coalesce as he rode his pod to his resting quarters. '_With Halkim gone, you are at a bit of a loose end are you not Jayden?'_

'_I am still working with the human Teyla's abilities, and I am caring for Mia. But yes, I am mostly doing busy work.' _Jayden frowned trying to figure out where his Mother was heading with her thoughts. _'Is there something I could be doing?'_

'_You could return to your rightful place by my side.' _His Mother was quick to reply, her voice laced with petulance. But before Jayden could finish rolling his eyes at her repeated attempts to get him back as her head guard, and begin his well practiced list of reasons he could not do that, she continued. _'But I was thinking of another mission, a diplomatic mission.' _

Jayden continued walking down the corridor towards his quarters, but instead of planning to relax he now started thinking of all of the things he needed to take with him. _'Where? Are we still trying to pull planets out from under the Cerberus Clan's greedy fingers?'_

'_Well yes, but this has less to do with that and more to do with a strategic gaining of an ally.'_

Jayden frowned as he entered his room and then cursed himself for not noticing where her mind had wondered before it was too late to cut her off at the pass. _'No. Absolutely not!'_

'_Oh come on, Jayden. This could be fun! And there is an actual need here. You wouldn't just be doing busy work. The Atlantians are powerful allies, and their technology is impressive. We have knowledge and goods they want, and they have knowledge and goods we want. It is the perfect place to send a Diplomat like yourself to.' _

Jayden tried to form a coherent argument so that he could convince his Mother that this was a bad idea, but he wasn't trying to keep her out of his mind so she could see each of his objections before he had a chance to Voice them.

'_They already trust you, so another lead Diplomat will not do. There is no one I Trust more than you, so why wouldn't I send you? I will keep in contact with you, once a week I expect call-ins with progress reports and once a month I will need a report in person, so that you can Feed and Replenish. I will send others with you, so that all of the Atlantian's demands are not yours to bear, but you will be the lead in this. I will leave the negotiations up to you, but I will insist on the call-ins and the Feeding. Any promises you make I will Honor, and I will let you pick who you wish to take with you, once the numbers are settled upon.'_

Jayden fought with himself for a moment. The chance to _do _something instead of letting others do it, the chance to be in charge once more, and the Trust that his Mother was showing in letting him make promises without her prior approval all warred with his Fear. His Fear that he would screw the mission up, Fear of learning that the Atlantian's he had begun to Like didn't Trust him, and Fear that the human that had captured his complete attention for the first time in his life would Hate him so much that his presence would cause Ronan pain, as it had the last time they had seen each other on the planet where he had given the Atlantian's the afore promised ZPM. But the chance to see his Obsession was more than he could fight against. _'I know one thing I will need to start out with.'_

"Off world activation. Incoming wormhole." The Stargate lit up as each chevron was encoded, the wormhole blasted forth in a tunnel of water as the last chevron locked. The alarm rang throughout the control room in its grating fashion, making everyone feel as though certain doom was coming for them. "Shields are up."

"We don't have any teams off world, do we?" Weir asked as she stood at the control panel, looking at the shielded wormhole as though she could see through the event horizon to the other side.

"No ma'am." The tech answered. "All teams are accounted for, not everyone is done with their psych evals yet."

There was a pause as everyone in the control room stared at the wormhole, goosebumps flickered their flesh as they realized who this must be.

"Is there a radio signal coming in?" Weir asked, her voice carried to the other side of the control room as the techs turned the alarm off, so that everyone could hear easily.

"Yes ma'am." The tech tuned the radio signal on speaker without being asked, and everyone heard the Wraith voice easily through the silent control room.

"People of Atlantis. This is the Wraith Jayden. I wish to speak with you. Please respond." There was a pause as the familiar voice waited for a response. "People of Atlantis. This is the Wraith Jayden. I wish to speak with you. Please respond."

Weir looked around the room for a moment. "Get Sheppard and his team up here now, I need his thoughts."

"Ma'am, Ronan is still under bed rest, it's only been a day since his latest surgery. As I understand it Dr. Beckett is keeping him sedated so that he doesn't try to get up and leave before he's healed. The last two times Ronan was back in the infirmary in hours and Dr. Beckett doesn't want to have to go in again."

Weir looked at the soldier who spoke and nodded, acknowledging his information before looking back at one of the techs. "Get the rest of Lt. Colonel Sheppard's team down here ASAP."

Weir frowned as she listened to Jayden's voice repeat his mantra, trying to think through the implications. Sheppard, Teyla and Rodney arrived at a trot, but it was Beckett who spoke first, out of breath and anxious. "Is it really Jayden?"

Just as he spoke Jayden began repeating his message, so that everyone could easily hear that it was indeed him. "People of Atlantis. This is the Wraith Jayden. I wish to speak with you. Please respond."

"Dr. Beckett, what are you doing here?" Weir asked sharply, annoyed that she had her errant doctor once again around the Wraith he seemed to disregard all rules for.

"I was with Lt. Colonel Sheppard with Ronan in the infirmary when he was called in. I can't believe you would keep this from me." Carson's admonishment lost a lot of its vehemence as he stood up with his arms over his head to encourage breathing, still gasping from his run.

"I wasn't keeping this from you Carson; I am still trying to figure out what to do." Weir snapped, frustrated with this turn of events. "What do you recommend Lt. Colonel Sheppard?"

"Open communications, they already know we are here." Sheppard said with a shrug. Despite his reassuring words he still gripped his gun and eyed the wormhole as though he too wanted to see what was really on the other side.

"Jayden, this is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. You wished to speak?"

"Dr. Weir, I would like to discuss opening up an alliance with your people."

Weir's eyebrows rose and she looked around to see looks of surprise on everyone else's face as well. "An alliance? What kind of alliance?"

Jayden paused for a moment before continuing. "A mutually beneficial one. I would like to discuss this in person if you would."

Now Weir looked more than surprised, she looked wary. "And where would this discussion take place?"

"I am willing to come to you, we could meet on a neutral planet, or you could always come to me?" There was no hint of threat in Jayden's voice, but at the last suggestion it was obvious he was mocking Weir's lack of trust.

"Give me some time to discuss this with my people. Dial back in an hour?"

Jayden paused for a moment before everyone could hear a sigh ripple through the radio. "I will try to wait an 'hour' but my understanding of your time is not exact. An hour is 3600 of your seconds, correct?"

"Yes." Weir said, smiling as she remembered Rodney explaining their units of time to the Wraith who had come to retrieve Jayden.

"In an 'hour', then." The wormhole disconnected moments after Jayden spoke, leaving the Atlantians trying to decide how best to proceed.

"Do we let him in here or do we meet with him somewhere else?" Sheppard asked cutting to the chase. "If we meet him somewhere else, we can take a puddle jumper and get set up, before he gets there. Then give him the coordinates once he radios back in."

"But if he really does want to set up a true alliance, setting up off world and giving him so little maneuvering room is showing we don't trust him. Despite the fact that he appears trustworthy so far. That could set the wrong tone for negotiations." McKay said rapidly, looking pained. "If we want more ZedPM's we need to be on his good side."

Weir looked at everyone around her, and they all seemed to be okay with the idea of letting the Wraith come here, in fact all of the scientist looked positively ecstatic, if only because of the ZPMs. "Sheppard, set up for a visit. Is an hour enough time?" Sheppard looked thoughtful as he nodded and started firing off orders. "McKay, Beckett, gather your colleges so we can discuss what you'd like to get out of negotiations. I want you two to sit-in though, I think that he responded well to you in the past and that will be a good way to let him know that we want these negotiations to succeed."

Everyone scattered as they got their orders, and Weir paused on moment to look at the closed Stargate and wonder at the wisdom of letting Wraith into their facility again.

Jayden waited patiently on the planet for the time to pass, his guards twitching anxiously beside him. The deserted planet he chose was a forested place, wiped of its human inhabitants during a culling many centuries ago. He silently waited for the male beside him to build up his Boredom enough to ask the inevitable questions. _"Can we dial them now? Can you explain these time increments to me again? How can you keep track?"_

The male beside Jayden was young, a little over two centuries old, and impatient. But he had an inquisitive mind and a Compassionate nature that few of their kind possessed. He had been so Excited and Honored to be chosen as Jayden's assistant that Jayden knew he had picked the perfect Wraith to accompany him. "_It is almost time, Calm yourself Micah. You are making the soldiers uneasy. You know there is a good chance you will not be allowed to accompany me to Atlantis this trip?"_

"_I understand, I just want to meet these Atlantians so badly. Are they really able to use the Meddlers technology? Are they descendants of the Meddlers? What about…" _Micah stopped himself as Jayden released a very pointed burst of Annoyance and ducked his head, replacing his Broadcasting of Excitement with Submission instantly. Jayden instantly felt bad for Frightening the poor youngling, but the male was driving him mad with the questions while Jayden was fighting to keep track of the time.

"Remember, we must speak aloud when conversing with the humans. Anything that you need to say privately, do so carefully, the human Teyla will Feel any Broadcastings you Send out as well. The humans may be able to Sense some of the Sendings as well. So remain Guarded." Jayden spoke as he dialed the Atlantian's address. The wormhole stabilized in a rush and he opened connections with Dr. Weir once more. "Dr. Elizabeth Weir, this is the Wraith Jayden. I hope enough time has passed for you to decide if you want to meet with me."

There was a short pause and Jayden considered repeating but decided to wait. He was rewarded when after only a moment longer Dr. Weir's voice came through the receiver. "Jayden, this is Dr. Weir. We welcome you to discuss a formal alliance here on Atlantis."

Jayden paused for a moment as the youth beside him practically danced in Excitement. "That would be acceptable; I am bringing with me another male and four guards. If that is acceptable?"

"I would be more comfortable with two guards, and no weapons." Weir replied, her voice a mixture of amusement and hesitation.

"That is acceptable." Jayden waved two of his guards to stay put. "Are you ready for us to come through the ring?"

There was a prominent pause. "You are cleared to step through the Stargate."

Jayden motioned for Micah to step back as he took the lead. The two soldiers dropped back so that they stood between the two males forming a diamond pattern. With a deep breath Jayden walked towards the ring and hoped that the Atlantians had dropped their shields. _At least I won't know if they never did._ Jayden thought as he dematerialized.

He stepped through to the other side of the gate to a hundred guns pointed at him. He looked at them all but ignored them in favor of the humans towards the back, behind their defense. Dr. Weir, John Sheppard, Teyla, Dr. Beckett, Dr. Douglas, and Dr. McKay all gathered back behind their armed guards. Jayden heard the others join him on the platform before the ring shut off and they stood there for a moment. Jayden fought to keep himself from looking back to make sure that Micah wasn't gawking in a very undignified fashion and instead took a step towards the delegation he wished to meet.

"Halt!" One of the human soldiers spoke up, looking decidedly nervous and tense. "What is that in your hand?"

Jayden looked down at the sack in his hand and then back at the humans gathered around, watching in amusement as they tensed. But his attention went to Rodney moments later as he gave off a true Broadcasting of Joy. "Tell me you did! Please tell me you did!" Ignoring all of the guards between him and his 'present' Dr. Rodney McKay ran until he stood less than five feet away from the Wraith delegation.

"Rodney?" Dr. Weir called sounding alarmed.

Rodney ignored her as he had everyone else and looked at Jayden with full puppy eyes. Jayden smiled at the doctor and extended the bag, despite how the guards around him tensed. Rodney took another couple of steps and then cradled the wrapped ZPM in his hands. "I could kiss you! But I won't because that would be stepping across some sort of boundary I am sure. He brought another ZedPM!" Rodney called back to his team, who looked amused at his antics. He kept looking at the ZPM and then back to them, trying to lift it up for others to see and simultaneously hold it close to get a good look at it. "Zelenka!"

Another human approached behind Rodney, looking more worried than his counterpart but just as excited. It only took a brief glimpse of the ZPM for the human to ignore the Wraith delegation and start muttering in another language in excited tones. Jayden smiled when he saw the scientists' excitement and he looked up to watch the Atlantian leaders approach.

"Jayden, welcome to Atlantis." Dr. Weir said looking pleased. "I thank you for the ZPM. But I have to admit I was not expecting either this one or the last one."

Micah shifted behind Jayden, craning around a little to see all of Atlantis he could from their placement at the foot of the ring. "Among my people, when clans greet each other to settle differences and begin an alliance or friendship, it is customary for a gift to be brought. The value of the gift goes to show how serious and committed one side is to the other."

"Well I apologize; we have no gift for you." Dr. Weir said looking down in chagrin. "But I hope that you realize that it does not reflect our commitment to this alliance."

Jayden relaxed and spread his arms to indicate he had not been insulted. "There is no offense Dr. Elizabeth Weir. We are from two very different peoples, there is much about our cultures that needs to be discovered and shared."

Dr Weir looked surprised by Jayden's graceful maneuvering of what could have been a very serious political misstep. "If you would follow me, we have arranged for a conference room so that we may discuss our alliance."

The four Wraith stepped behind the Atlantians and followed them up to the command center, the human soldiers watching their every move.

I have A LOT of ideas and I hope to actually be able to sit and write them out. I refuse to promise updates soon because that seems to go awry, but I do promise that I will not forget this fic!

Also I have finally decided on a title! I will change it next time I update. It's _**The Diplomat**_


	7. Negotiations

Storylover158 – You make me update :-D

Don't own anything!

Without further ado!

* * *

Dr. Weir sat down in the middle of one side of the table and gestured for the Wraith to sit on the other side. The two male Wraith, Jayden and another male she hadn't met before, sat in the seats indicated; but the two Wraith with the strange masks on just stood off to the side, flanking the sitting Wraith in a manner similar to the way that her guards stood on her side.

She took a moment to study the new Wraith male. He appeared young, with his white hair barely touching his shoulders, but there was something about him that set her at ease. It only took her a moment to realize what it was, there was something human about the two Wraith she had sitting before her that had been missing in Wraith she had seen before. Their facial expressions were easier to read and they seemed to be going out of their way to be friendly and non-hostile.

"I apologize," she said looking at the new Wraith. "I haven't introduced myself or my people. I am Dr. Elizabeth Weir, head of Atlantis. This is Dr. Carson Beckett, head of our medical team. Dr. Rodney McKay, head of our science and research teams. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, head of military personnel, and Teyla Emmagan she is the leader of the Ethosians."

The Wraith seemed flattered at being noticed and introduced. He shot a brief look at Jayden as though looking for guidance. Jayden didn't appear to do anything, waiting for him to decide the best course of action, after a moment the Wraith looked back at her. "I am Micah, of the Ladon Clan. Follower of the Mother. It is a pleasure to be allowed to see Atlantis, and so intact!"

Weir paused a moment to see if that was a jibe at how Atlantis had been attacked and abandoned, but eventually decided that he was voicing honest appreciation and joy at Atlantis' state. "Thank you, we are very proud of it. Perhaps if things go well I will be able to give you a tour." Weir was rewarded by the Wraith's face lighting up in pleasure.

"I would enjoy that very much, Dr. Elizabeth Weir."

With pleasantries out of the way, Weir looked at Jayden, since he was obviously the leader of their delegation. "I must say I was surprised to be hearing from you Jayden."

"Our first meeting was under… unfavorable conditions. But I think that we can move beyond it easily and that an alliance would be beneficial for both of our people."

"So you say, but I fail to see how we can coexist peacefully." Weir stated, narrowing her eyes so that she could watch the Wraith's reactions more closely.

"I see no reason we cannot." Jayden said extending his arms to the side. "We have a common enemy, the other Wraith. They feed uncontrollably and are wiping the human populations out on entire worlds, as you saw in Halkim. If we combine our forces we could start eliminating the hives that are awake, perhaps even destroy entire Clans."

"I can see where that would benefit us both, but what about when the other Wraith are gone? How can our alliance last?" Weir asked the pertinent question, trying to avoid directly bringing up feeding. She knew that Atlantis and the human race stood much to gain from this alliance, but she needed more reasons to justify turning a blind eye to humans being drained.

"Knowledge." Jayden said simply. "Our people do not know each other. You Atlantians know little about us and our ways, as we know little about yours. But we have the benefit of knowing of other people. If we share our cultures I am sure we will find more common ground. We want to learn of your culture, you wish to understand the Wraith better. What fascinating discoveries could be made with our two very different people working together?"

Weir looked at her people to gauge their moods. Beckett and McKay were nodding in agreement. Teyla looked at Weir and gave an encouraging nod. Only Sheppard seemed unsure, whether that was due to the impact having Wraith around Atlantis would have on Ronan or some other concern was undeterminable, but when he saw Weir look at him he shrugged and smiled. "Then let us work out our terms."

The delegations sat for hours, hashing out as many details as they could think of.

"Under no circumstances were the Wraith allowed to feed on Atlantis." Weir said with conviction.

"If that is the case then human food must be provided for us." Jayden replied. "It will help stave off the Hunger and allow us to go longer between Feedings."

"You can eat human food and gain nourishment from it?" Beckett asked, breaking into the talks in his excitement.

Jayden looked at Micah, who up until this moment had been largely left on the sidelines. "We gain some nourishment from it, enough that it can prolong the times between Feedings considerably. But it cannot sustain us forever, and no other Clan that I know of can gain any nourishment from human food after they reach their thirteenth year."

"How is this possible?" Beckett asked, his mind turning over the possibilities.

"With Mother to guide us, all things are possible." Micah said with a shrug.

"I would very much like to meet this Mother of yours!" Beckett said hopefully.

The Wraith exchanged looks with each other. "Perhaps one day Dr. Beckett. We will trust you to meet Mother, when you trust us to see Earth." Jayden said with an apologetic shrug. "She is at least as precious to us as your Earth is to you. We would not risk her without such a showing of trust."

The humans all looked crestfallen; they knew the likelihood of the Wraith ever being allowed on Earth was so slim that it was nonexistent. "Perhaps one day." Dr. Beckett said looking down, unwilling to give up hope.

"We must also be allowed to check in with our Clan once a week at predetermined times, and any Wraith that stays here must be allowed to return home atleast once a month for nourishment and to do a report face-to-face. The visit home will take one day off planet." Jayden said, looking back at Weir and away from Beckett's crestfallen face.

Weir nodded in agreement as she fought back her awe at seeing Jayden truly work. He was a solid politician, he sidestepped pitfalls with ease. He never denied anything the Atlantians wanted; just put something insurmountable in their way, so that they had to deny themselves. It was very much like a chess game, and she frowned to realize that while she was not losing, it was mostly due to the fact that Jayden appeared to be trying to be as fair as possible. "We also need to discuss the number of Wraith on base at any given time."

Jayden smiled. "That has mostly to do with you, the fewer Wraith there are the less that can be shared, there are only so many 'hours' in a day." Weir found herself smiling at his attempt at humor. "Of the Wraith allowed in Atlantis, at least half have to be soldiers."

"That seems a bit extreme if we are going to be allies." Weir said, pointing out the inconsistencies in logic. Allies shouldn't need guards from each other.

Jayden raised his eyebrows. "You have many soldiers. Over half of the population in Atlantis are soldiers, I am assuming since they seemed to be all I see." Jayden raised his hand as Weir tried to open her mouth. "I understand needing to keep the scientists and civilians safe. But you can see where if we are going to be staying on Atlantis for any given time, that some protection is required. Sometimes just the appearance of a soldier can keep violence and prejudices down."

Weir looked down at her hands; she could see where he was right. There was no way that she would allow Wraith unguarded wandering around Atlantis, but soldiers are the ones fighting and dying because of the Wraith. There were some among them that would go out of their way to be insulted or take offence to something the Wraith said, just to get an excuse to attack or kill them. Hadn't she been about to say that of course he's mostly seen soldiers, Wraith are dangerous? That could have been incredibly insulting to the Wraith delegation.

"I agree that half of the Wraith should be soldiers, if you agree that there will be one human guard per Wraith as well."

Jayden smiled. "Of course. On the number of Wraith, twenty would be sufficient to allow for rotations home and to meet all of the scientist needs."

"Twenty?" Weir said in shock.

"I assume that your medical teams will want to 'interact' with a Wraith, as I am sure a Wraith will want to be a part of the medical team's research. That means two male Wraith for medical research. Both so that there can be something we are learning from you as you learn from us, and to draw comparisons. The same is true of all areas of research. I assume in addition to medical there will be cultural, agricultural, astrological, and military research. So ten male Wraith at a minimum, and ten soldiers."

Weir frowned as she tried to think of a way to avoid so many Wraith in Atlantis. "Sheppard, do you have any objections?"

"I think as long as everyone agrees to get along, twenty will be fine." Sheppard states, speaking up for the first time since the meeting began. "But any Wraith that causes a continuing problem will have to be replaced with one that is friendlier."

"That too is acceptable. Where will we be staying while in Atlantis?" Jayden asked to keep the ball rolling.

"We will assign rooms in the east hall." Weir said pulling up a map and gesturing to the aforementioned area. "There are transporters that will allow you to move about in a mostly unrestricted fashion. It is also away from most of our more volatile personnel, to reduce unpleasant run-ins."

"We only need one or two large rooms." Jayden said indicating the map. "We prefer to be close to one another."

Weir raised her eyebrow but nodded, looking at the area in the East wing, trying to find a large enough spot for twenty Wraith. "There is a common area. Overlooks the ocean and should be large enough for your people. Once out meeting is over I can show you it and you can determine if it is suitable."

Jayden nodded in agreement. "We also prefer dim lighting and for our quarters to be warmer than the area we are in now."

"I am sorry, is this uncomfortable?" Weir asked slightly distressed.

"Oh no, but if we are talking about our living quarters I think that my people would be much happier long term if they had an area to retreat to that is more like our home." Jayden said. "To that effect, if that area of Atlantis is to be our home while we reside here, I will have to ask for some privacy. We cannot have people coming in uninvited. As I am sure you would not like for someone to enter your quarters uninvited. That would include the guards you have assigned us."

Weir frowned. "I am not sure if that is something we can accommodate you with."

"I think it would be simple to protect the entry and exit points to keep visitors away, what with the human guards that are assigned to us augmenting the existing guards when we return to help keep us undisturbed."

Weir fought to keep her expression blank as she contemplated the concessions she would have to make and matched them to the concessions the Wraith were making. To basically cut her people and herself off from one section of Atlantis, and give the Wraith free reign while they were there was a large concession. But the Wraith were going to be living amongst hostile people, Weir had no doubts they would run into problems no matter how careful she was assigning guards, and they asked for a place they could retreat to to be safe. Jayden was also hinting at allowing the Wraith's quarters to being sealed with guards at the entrances, so that when they shed their guards at the door there was less chance they could sneak out without them again. He did this all in a way that made her objection seem to be caused by not being able to keep people out of the area, not that she didn't want the Wraith to be unmonitored even in their quarters. Weir gave herself a mental dressing down, she hadn't had to deal with these types of serious negotiations in so long that she was slipping, she had already made several mistakes that Jayden could have found insult in; each time Jayden had skillfully sidestepped insult in such a way that it didn't embarrass her, all the while getting at the true issue she had so indelicately addressed.

"I think that our people have reached a very good start to our alliance." Weir said standing up. She extended her hand as a natural part of her routine when ending a discussion before she realized that the Wraith wouldn't know what she was doing; and did she really want a Wraith's feeding hands touching her own? "Among my people," Weir said quickly to avoid awkwardness and to keep herself from retreating, "it is customary to end an agreement with a handshake. To seal the deal, so to speak."

Jayden smiled as he too stood and he reached his hand out. His hand stopped just inches from hers and she steeled herself before grasping his hand and shaking it once. His hand was warmer than most she had touched, his skin smoother, and the muscles in his hand rock hard. He could have easily crushed her hand with his but instead he applied the same pressure she did and allowed her to retreat.

Weir had to fight with herself for a moment to avoid rubbing her hand on her thigh to wipe off the tickling sensation the feeding mouth on his hand had left her with. While the sensation was not unpleasant it was strange and she pushed it to the back of her mind to be considered later. "Follow me; before you return to gather your teams I will show you to where you shall be staying."

She had intended for it to be her, her new Wraith allies and two guards. But instead she had a not so miniature parade following her. Beckett and McKay were joined by Zalanka, Douglas and ten other scientists at the door to her conference room. As soon as they saw Beckett and McKay's smile they seemed to glow in excitement and then they began following her like ducklings already trying to ask the Wraith questions.

Jayden and Micah seemed amused by the scientist glee and soon Micah was answering questions with as much enthusiasm as the scientist asked them; fitting in his own questions as well.

* * *

"So what is the difference between clans and hives?" A female scientist called from the outskirts of the mass of scientists.

"A Hive is one family, with a female at the head. A Clan is a group of females, each the head of their own hive, working together under one head Female. Is it not the same here? All of you work under Dr. Elizabeth Weir who is the head female." Micah replied looking at all the humans in Confusion but no Alarm, despite being surrounded.

The scientist frowned and muttered to themselves at the comparison. "Fascinating." One of the males spoke up. "I think there are some similarities. We have teams; they are like your hives, each with their own leaders. But Weir is the head of all of Atlantis; she could be the lead of our clan. If you factor in the fact that gender plays no real role in our decisions, there is a striking resemblance."

"Gender plays no role?" Micah asked Surprised and Unsettled. He was equally Surprised when another scientist echoed his words.

"Gender plays no role? Of course gender plays a role! You don't see as many female leaders as male leaders. And it is even rarer to see a female leader in a traditional male lead role, like the military." Another female called out, gesturing towards the offending male human. Before Micah had a chance to explore that avenue of thought he was beset by another group of scientists.

"How do you project the mental images used to confuse people? Is it a pheromone you give off that causes hallucinations or is it something else?" A man walking behind the one called Beckett, who Micah recognized as Dr. Douglas from Jayden's memories he examined in the River, spoke in excited tones trying to make sure his question got answered.

"The projections are created in our minds, and then pushed outwards." Micah frowned as he tried to explain something that came naturally to him. "It is a good defense when we are scared and is a good distraction to drive people where we want to go."

"A defense? What could scare the Wraith?" This question came from one of the soldiers following the scientists, Micah took a moment to realize that there seemed to be a very large group of soldiers following the scientist group, despite their assurances that only one human guard would be following each Wraith around. Micah wouldn't have minded the question if it had come from the scientists, they approached things with a Thirst for knowledge that he had seen in others and meant no Offence, but the soldier was obviously challenging Micah and his tone was Insulting.

Before he could do anything to jeopardize the newly formed alliance Dr. Beckett jumped down the soldier's throat. "There is always something bigger and badder out there Lieutenant, and even at the top of the food chain there are things to be afraid of. I personally am afraid of spiders, I hate the buggers."

Micah looked at the doctor in Gratitude. "I do not know what the 'spiders' are but I will protect you from them. Unless they are very large, and then I will get Jayden to protect us both." Micah looked at Jayden when he Felt Amusement coming from him.

"Don't go promising my services," Jayden said in a mock serious tone. "Perhaps I too will be afraid of these 'spiders'."

"Oh for heavens' sake!" The one called Dr. Rodney McKay cried out. He then proceeded to tap on a flat square very similar to their blueberries. "Here." He turned the screen towards both of the male Wraith who had paused to see the screen clearly.

Micah did not have to act to pull back in Horror. "I can see why you would be scared Dr. Carson Beckett. Do you truly have such monstrous things on Earth?"

"I will have to admit I will not be protecting you from these 'spiders'." Jayden said as he bent to examine the screen more carefully. "I can only promise not to Feed you to them so they leave me alone."

"They are very tiny. Most of the time you don't even notice them." McKay tried to placate the horrified Wraith.

"So it will be easier for them to sneak up on you… I changed my mind; I never want to visit this Earth." Micah shook his head at the laughter coming from the humans.

* * *

Sheppard watched as the large group of Atlantians all relaxed around the Wraith delegation. Neither of the Wraith guards appeared threatening, and the two male Wraith were obviously doing their best to keep the atmosphere light. Sheppard watched the problem soldier for a moment and made a mental note not to allow him to be on guard duty for the Wraith.

Sheppard found it fascinating watching the Wraith interact with the other people of Atlantis. Micah reminded him of Ford, before he went crazy. He was young, with a sense of humor and a dash of goofiness, but he had been serious when he needed to be during the meeting.

Surprisingly Jayden reminded him of himself. Jayden was obviously a leader and he cared for his people, but there was something indefinable that reminded John of himself. John could not bring himself to regard the two male Wraith as possible enemies, so he turned his attention to the Wraith soldiers. They were exactly like every other Wraith soldier he had seen, indistinguishably identical in their masks and muscles. Suddenly struck with a question of his own he turned to Jayden who was walking in the front of the group with Weir, and so was only a foot or so away. "What is up with the guys in the masks?"

Jayden looked back at Sheppard and dropped back a step so they could converse easier. "The guards you mean? They are soldiers, bred for protection. They are strong and can take down two to three males easily if enraged. They serve no purpose in reproduction and therefore have little value, so they are used as..." Jayden frowned, obviously looking for a word.

"Cannon fodder?" Sheppard supplied helpfully, there was no reproach in his voice, because he didn't want to offend Jayden and because he honestly didn't know how to feel. "They take all the major damage and weaken the opposing force, if they die there is no great loss."

"Cannon fodder seems like the appropriate word. They are not truly Connected to the Hive so their loss is Felt but minutely. They are used as guards because when given an order they will not disobey, because it does not occur to them to disobey. When the Hive is safe and happy they are at peace and have no worries." Jayden shrugged. "They pick up on any type of Unhappiness and it agitates them, so they can be aggressive or restless unless they are handled properly."

"You sound like you are talking about a pet." Sheppard commented frowning in thought.

"I do not know what a 'pet' is." Jayden remarked helpfully.

Sheppard frowned as he thought it over, trying to describe pets in a way that wouldn't offend anyone. "Human's sometimes keep creatures as pets. If they are not properly trained, or if they don't trust their owner or know their place they can become very unruly. But they are cared for as well, a dog is a type of pet and there is a saying 'a dog is a man's best friend.'"

Jayden nodded thoughtfully. "It is much the same I think, with only that description to go on."

Weir looked back at the two conversing and then frowned at the large gathering just behind them. "We will not all fit in the transporter." Weir said to try and disperse the group.

The scientists looked at the transporter and the small space inside, then at the Wraith guards, Weir, Sheppard, and the two Wraith males. A few looked as though they were going to try it when Micah finally seemed to realize where they were headed.

Sheppard watched as Micah looked at the small closet like room and then shoot a look at Jayden. Jayden smiled at him for a moment before nodding. Micah let out a sigh and seemed relieved.

"I will remain here." Micah announced. "If that is acceptable? I have many questions and soon there will be many other Wraith here so I will not be so special. I would like some of them answered by that time."

Sheppard nodded to Weir when she looked at him. "I have no objections. Jayden?"

Jayden looked at Micah, the scientists and seemed willing to let it go, and then he looked at the crowd of soldiers behind the scientists. "Perhaps the soldiers should stay here?" Jayden proposed, and it was obvious he meant the Wraith soldiers with Micah. "There is so little room that I think a few less will make a difference. If that is acceptable?"

Weir nodded her consent and the two Wraith soldiers didn't seem to need any command to step back out of the transporter and settle to watching Micah's back.

The transported doors closed, leaving the heads of Atlantis civilians and military with a Wraith, only one human guard between them; and three more Wraith with nothing between them and the scientists of Atlantis but air.

* * *

BOO-YAH! Updated, didn't even take me that long! :-D Ended with a vaguely ominous feeling right?

Thought: If everyone is out and about with the Wraith... who's keeping Ronan from leaving the infirmary? :-) MWHAHAHAHA


End file.
